What's our President doing in Saudi Arabia?
By Reuben Abati 


Why would President Umaru Musa Yar'çdua choose to go to Saudi Arabia at this time instead of the 64th UN General Assembly meeting holding in New York? What's so special about Saudi Arabia which the President has visited thrice this year and at least twice in 2008? Which trip would have been of more strategic importance to Nigeria: the junket to Saudi Arabia or Nigeria's presence at the meeting of the world's leaders and diplomats? The answer is straightforward: Mr President should have been in New York promoting Nigeria's interest. But he is not. What we are dealing with is a serious crisis in Nigeria's foreign relations process. It is ocassioned by the failure of a new team of foreign policy managers who have no idea what should be important to Nigeria It is either the President has bad foreign policy advisers or he does not care enough about the message that is being sent across namely that Nigeria is losing its pre-eminent position in African and global politics.




It was this year that President Yar'çdua lamented Nigeria's absence at the London Summit of the G20 and others. He later attended the G8 meeting in Italy. Shouldn't we expect therefore that President Yar'çdua would attend the UN General Assembly Meeting? His presence would have been more useful. Nigeria not only had an invitation to the Summit, President Yar'Adua would have had an opportunity to make a speech and to engage other world leaders one on one, and make a case for Nigeria on many fronts, and to promote issues that are of interest to the country. Who advised the President to shun the UN summit?

If it is thought that this amounts to a snobbery of President Obama as a kind of reciprocal action, then that would be wrong. The UN General Assembly is not about the United States; it is not a visit to Obama. After all, President Obama avoided any contact with Libya's Muammar Ghaddafi and before Ghaddafi made his provocative speech, US foreign policy figures including Hillary Clinton had left the hall. Perhaps the world would have been more interested in listening to President Yar'çdua. He has stories to tell and the world has questions for him too. Besides, Nigeria remains the most strategic country in Africa with its oil and large market.

Last year, President Yar'Adua sent Foreign Affairs Minister Ojo Maduekwe to represent him at the UN General Assembly. He has done so again this year. The way these things work, nobody of serious weight is likely to grant audience to the Nigerian delegation. Okay, Maduekwe and co met with Johnnie Carson, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs! But no one should be surprised that the Nigerian representation has been rather ludicrous with the biggest report so far being Maduekwe's alleged statement about the flawed elections of 2007 and the possibility of Maurice Iwu being removed as INEC chair once his tenure expires, and back home, there has been some response from the Iwu camp, accusing Maduekwe of condemning the election that brought Yar'Adua, his boss, to power! This is the cockfight that the Nigerian delegation has contributed to a meeting where important issues like climate change, the composition of the UN Security Council, global poverty, international terrorism and multilateralism are being discussed by over 100 Heads of States.

Lagos, Nigeria was in fact cited as one of the cities of the world with serious climate change challenges. What did the Nigerian delegation say to that? President Yar'Adua may not have said anything cleverer but with the weight of his office, he would have been in a good position to seek out more friends for Nigeria and do some direct back-room diplomacy for example, over the US rejection of Nigeria's ambassadorial nominee to the United States, bilateral relations with other countries and Nigeria's interest in the UN Security Council seat. Maduekwe or someone else should have been sent to Saudi Arabia! Let our leaders stop ridiculing Nigeria.

Imagine: Newspapers yesterday published our President's photograph as he arrived in Saudi Arabia, looking very happy, being received by the Governor of Makkah! A Governor! Where was the King of Saudi Arabia who reportedly invited him? The King of Saudi Arabia invites our President to the opening of a University of Technology and Science and he jets off and ignores a UN function? And he gets there only to be received by a state Governor. How did Saudi Arabia become so overly important in Nigerian affairs? Our President goes there for medical treatment. Government officials of all ranks visit the same country at least twice a year, for hajj and umrah. When they are not in Saudi Arabia, they are in Dubai!On nearly all fronts in the the past two years, we have consistently played badly in the international arena.

The Nigerian seat at important international engagements is often vacant or it is occupied by low-ranking officials who arrive late or if they are punctual at all, they lack the weight or the authority to engage other participants and secure important commitments. With the Nigerian voice now muted in foreign policy and with the general concern about the failure of governance in the country, the modest gains of the Obasanjo years in foreign policy are being lost. Nigeria is once again back to its position during the Babangida-Abacha years as the country which everyone likes to treat lightly. In China, there are over 700 Nigerians in prison and there is no evidence that the Nigerian embassy is making any effort to ensure that they get fair hearing. In Libya, it took the intervention of the AU to insist that 22 Nigerians on death row should not be killed because they have not been fairly treated by the Ghaddafi government.

In Darfur, a Rwandese was chosen above a Nigerian for the post of the Commander of the UN-AU peacekeeping force simply because Nigeria did not push hard enough. President Obama during his first historic visit to Africa as US President pointedly ignored Nigeria. Mrs Hillary Clinton visited later in what looked like a make-up visit but that soon ended in a disagreement of sorts between the US Secretary of State and the Nigerian authorities particularly the EFCC. Even diplomats who are serving in Nigeria are not impressed with our domestic policy: they file reports to their home governments about how Nigeria is floundering on all fronts and how so little has been achieved two years after the flawed elections of 2007.

About a fortnight ago, the British High Commissioner felt concerned beyond the call of duty to advise Nigeria to diversify its economy, noting that out of six containers that are imported into Nigeria, only one manages to get sent back as export cargo. Corporate bodies and the cultural community abroad are reinventing stereotypes about Nigeria. Sony Corp in its Playstation 3 advertisement labelled our country, a nation of gangsters and scammers. Nigeria's protest has resulted in the withdrawal of the offensive material but the damage has been done. There is also at the moment a controversial movie, Destiny 9, produced by SONY Entertainment in which Nigerians are portrayed as gangsters. Nigeria's image has always been problematic, it is the more reason why greater energy is required on the foreign policy front to reassure the international community about efforts being made in the domestic sphere to address the challenges of national development.

The Saudi Arabian trip by President Yar'Adua is said to be a working visit. On Thursday, President Yar'Adua was one of the guests at the opening of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology whose President told the guests: "We have recruited the very best minds from around the world, we have students from more than 60 countries. This is truly the beginning of a very exciting academic enterprise." Shame on Nigeria: President Yar'çdua presides over a country where the academic system is anything but enterprising. While he is in Saudi Arabia shaking hands with the Governor of Makkah, the President of a University of Science and Technology and having tea with the King of Saudi Arabia, Federal universities in Nigeria have remained shut for more than three months due to workers' strike. Secondary and primary schools resumed after a long holiday this week, but the teachers are nowhere to be found in the public schools in many states: they are on strike. Best minds are fleeing the Nigerian school system. Students from other countries are no longer coming to Nigeria to study.

And did President Yar'çdua go on a tour of the King Abdullah university? Does it look like any of the under-funded and poorly managed structures we call universities in Nigeria? Is the Minister of Education part of the President's delegation to Saudi Arabia to take notes? Working visit indeed. Hopefully, Mr President will learn some lessons from his trip to Saudi Arabia. He likes the hospitals in Saudi Arabia. He should try and build similar ones in Nigeria. He likes to attend university functions. When last did he personally attend a university lecture or convocation ceremony in his own country? He admires the Saudi Arabian education system. He should try and build a similar system in Nigeria not one that drives away "the very best minds," because government refuses to negotiate with academic and non-academc staff.

President Yar'Adua has already succeeded in helping to advertise the newly commissioned university in Saudi Arabia, that university may soon attract the very best minds in Nigeria who are seeking a place where they can have quality education. And we hope that a memo will emerge from this trip about the importance of education, and that no one will tell stories, the strange type that we have heard this week, that the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting in Abuja could not hold because Ministers enjoyed the Eid-el-fitri holiday so much they forgot to prepare memos for the meeting!

http://odili.net/news/source/2009/sep/25/99.html

1
commissioning a PRIVATE SCHOOL.

2
Secretly taking treatment, what is he transplanting again, who knows, we will ask him on Saturday when he returns.

3
Hiding from world leaders at the UN, reason? a coward maybe.
   what can he even talk about?,

i watched Qaddafi speech yesterday, he was just ranting, he was given 15 minutes to speak, and he used over 90 minutes, Africans? did i hear that.? lol.  Our president would have done just much worse!

@Poster. I thought I was the only one wandering. Its getting scary. Nigeria is too large and too important to have a President on sabatical.
I dont know what his game play is, and I dont know what his advicers say to him. I can only say, may the Lord help us oh.
Im not tribalistic, far from it, but there seems to be a down-ward trend everytime a northerner takes the rims of government. As if matters were not bad enough already. Everything has been at a standstill since he came into office.
At least with Obasanjo, there were things going on. Good and bad, there was movement. We had a president we could abuse for his actions and not his inaction

Our clowns don't give a toss about dross like the UN, afterall they've got what they consider a major international diplomatic coup; an unwritten apology from Sony.

@Beaf

Our clowns don't give a toss about dross like the UN, afterall they've got what they consider a major international diplomatic coup; an unwritten apology from Sony.

Thats the only thing nairalanders and Nigerians know, written apology from Sony, thats all they know,  they don't give a sh@t abt climate change! and other pressing international issues

@@@@

tranasferrin yoruba juju culture to saudis

cuz its on demand

ccheck out cuba,etc

All his looting in his bank account in SA. He is dumb and wise. Instead of open bank account in Europe were people will notice with immediate effect, he decided to go the other way no-one thought of and he knows that no will search bank account to SA.

[Quote author=kosovo]i watched Qaddafi speech yesterday, he was just ranting, he was given 15 minutes to speak, and he used over 90 minutes, Africans? did i hear that.? lol. Our president would have done just much worse![/Quote]

Just look at that wrecked, tattered and dying creature messing up. They should have sent some security there to pull him off the rostrum.

TheSeeker:

Just look at that wrecked, tattered and dying creature messing up. They should have sent some security there to pull him off the rostrum.

We're not the only nation with a useless leader I guess. The world is full of them. Foolish people all of them. They actually listened to the guys ranting a good 87 minutes. I was wandering why no one stopped him. I mean I know they couldnt have just pulled him off the rostrum, but it was a blatant insult on everyone in that assembly.

As a President of a country I guess he must be ready to take severe criticism for any. . .nay, all of his actions. . . for if he went to the UN Meeting we would say that Nigeria has a lot to deal with and he should not go anywhere. . .but if he doesn't go we would say that he is not representing the Nation. Oh well .  . the life of a leader and a President i guess.

Yes, we are like that. But thats his job. To work and be hailed and abused. It comes with politics. People will always be dissatisfied. It has its advantages and disadvantages. Obasanjo went for all and we abused him, not that he had gone, but he went and disgraced us in his usual farmer way. But its good. Thats a democracy. People should complain until they get a semblance of what they should have and not settle for just anything. Nigeria has a long way to go and if we as her people dont constantly complain, we wont move. We need results and then with experience we know when to stop complaining. But we must speak

Hello Rosabelle I see you are here on this thread as well

We definitely must be thankful for the opportunity and right to air views that democracy gives us. . .but not to fall into the trap of personal insults as the 'farmer' jab at ex-President Obasanjo.

And I don't think the complaining ever stops to be honest. . . all leaders are subject to severe criticism. . .from class captains to world leaders. . . the question is if these criticism are well thought out viewpoints or simply following the crowd or trend.

Calling Obasanjo a farmer is not a personal insult. He IS a farmer. He was one before he became president and he went back to his farm at the end of his terms. Bush was constantly called a cowboy, and this wasnt a personal insult. He is a cowboy. Theres no following the crowd here.
The question remains, critically asked: WHAT IS YARADUA ALWAYS DOING IN ARABIA?
For goodness sake. The UN general assembly in exchange for a school opening in saudi where he, a president was recieved by a governor?? where was the king who invited him?
His mates were at table in New York discussing world issues, they may still not have found resolutions to, but he shouddl have been present.

No no calling him a farmer is not the insult. I refer to when you said that he represented us in his 'usual farmer way'.
When he attended the G8 Summit complaints were rife. . . Same here. . . I doesn't really matter where he goes or doesn't go. . . he will still return to face criticism. I have once seen a picture of his daughter on this website and wondered why on earth would someone source a picture of his daughter and paste it on the internet. . .simply to spite him?

Where are we going in this country?

Guest at the opening of a university when the schools at home are shut!
Going for medical checkup in Saudi when the hospitals at home are dysfunctional!
Welcomed by a governor when presidents are waiting to welcome him!
Political class is been financed while our "ivory towers" are shot of fund!

We know all the problems, but where lie the solutions? God or ourselves? I believe it's ourselves, nobody will fix it for us but ourselves.

Solution = Revolution=Eliminating all corrupt people past and present.

Gaddafi is nothing but a hypocrite . he tore the UN chapter and they went on to say African's should be commensated for slavery. this bastard locks up thousands of african's (including children) in dentention centres in Libya without medical care or proper sanitation facillities or legal advise. they are all want to return home but he's refused to deported them. what planet is he on. if not for the massive oil fields in his country italy and the uk would not give a damn about him. shame on Gaddafi for treating his own peole like dirt,

Did I hear somebody say Yar Adua 2011?

thameamead:

Gaddafi is nothing but a hypocrite . he tore the UN chapter and they went on to say African's should be commensated for slavery. this bastard locks up thousands of african's (including children) in dentention centres in Libya without medical care or proper sanitation facillities or legal advise. they are all want to return home but he's refused to deported them. what planet is he on. if not for the massive oil fields in his country italy and the uk would not give a damn about him. shame on Gaddafi for treating his own peole like dirt,

And its strange how the CIA hasnt killed him, cos he's just the kind of leader they should have gotten off the human population a long time ago. A pain the the a##

Inferiority complex drove him there to avoid giving a speech a the UN general assembly

kokoA:

Inferiority complex drove him there to avoid giving a speech a the UN general assembly

I totally agree with you. Meanwhile he sent his wife to atend the IAEA general conference a week ago in vienna. I dont get the man's actions.

I feel for the guy sha.

This is Naija.

Planning the shariatization of Nigeria - unfortunately for him he'll be out come next election.

kosovo:

1
commissioning a PRIVATE SCHOOL.
 

When the universities in his own country have been on strike for months now,shame on you Yara fool

kosovo:


2
Secretly taking treatment, what is he transplanting again, who knows, we will ask him on Saturday when he returns.

Helep me ask am ooo 

kosovo:



3
Hiding from world leaders at the UN, reason? a coward maybe.
   what can he even talk about?,
 

You have a point here my guy

kosovo:


i watched Qaddafi speech yesterday, he was just ranting, he was given 15 minutes to speak, and he used over 90 minutes!
 

Gaddafi 's just a fool who's failed to realise that he's played

Hasn't he come back? Please that guy alone o!

must he do what every other person is dong? He'll go and sit in the general assembly and listen to crap. besides Nigeria has nothing solid to contribute yet. Future power and investments lie in Arabia.

_{what is the result of his/(their) previous meeting at the UN, infact what do they do after making those speech
at the UN to me its like a debating or conference, maybe the major countries get some deal here n there in the back room but the minor countries are busy begging Obama,brown,sarkozy and co for a quick meeting about aid and photo}

he should have gone to the UN though because that the 'normal' thing to do  

Every year there are threats of sanctions, Iran makes a controversial speech about Israel, Libya, north korea.   .   .   .

then they all go home promising to meet another day

GboGboAye:

must he do what every other person is dong? He'll go and sit in the general assembly and listen to crap. besides Nigeria has nothing solid to contribute yet. Future power and investments lie in Arabia.

Followed by full islamization and sharialization of nigeria