₦airaland Forum

AdonaiAluminium:
Despite all that, we are a sovereign nation and can still stand our ground and defend ours anything. Cuba for instance defiled all of US threats and blackmail to defend her sovereignty despite the fact that they are no where economically compared to US

Contact us for all your roofing jobs and roof maintenance services

worldclass68:
I totally disagree with you!!
fighting enemy within nah hin make Nigeria look like this,
trust me, it's far easier to fight against an outsider than to fight against someone from your family....of whom you might not even know!!

thebosstrevor:
one of the best article i have read

In this sense, the Nigerian government cannot do anything about the violence against its citizens in South Africa beyond making a few symbolic diplomatic moves and bringing up once again the Nigerian role in liberating South Africans from its white oppressors. It is clear that in doing so it is addressing Pretoria from the position of weakness.

Indeed, using persistent references to sub-Saharan African commonality and solidarity as a result of shared history, race and geography is not an effective foreign policy tool.

The idea of One Africa is a farce taken too far, and successive Nigerian elites have pandered to this fantasy to the detriment of national interests. The legacy of this pan-African misadventure is a geopolitically weak Nigeria which cannot stand up to for itself and for its citizens


there is nothing like one africa(pan africanism) is just a fantasy

national interest should be the core interest of every politician in nigeria instead of the one africa nonsense

a zulu man or a leo man is different from a yoruba or a hausa man in thinking, in customs and traditions, we are different

helinues:
Nigeria is not UAE fighting proxy wars in other middle east country.

Our government is handling the situations diplomatically

Iamgrey5:
I am far from being sentimental on this topic

The fact that SOME OF the largest companies in sa generate Their LARGEST revenues from Nigeria should tell you something..

The fact that we are the largest economy in Africa should tell you something.

OBVIOUSLY, Nigeria would SUFFER SOME
consequences if WE HAVE A diplomatic stand off with South Africa JUST AS SOUTH AFRICA WILL ALSO SUFFER. However, it funny to say we don't have any capacity to REACT TO South Africa if push comes to shove.

I know because I have lived in both countries.

lexy2014:
Jonathan deported south Africans after Nigerians were deported from SA and south Africa came begging. D article is highly inaccurate

ebusmus:
it's a curse to be part of this experiment called NIGERIA

MelesZenawi:
A country where military has taken the work of police.

Throughout the attack on SA did you see any military deployment.

If it in Nigeria, the whole barracks will be unleashed on the people...


Economy zero
miliy zero
police zero
certificate zero

Princedapace:
Guy, calm down and check countries that are top on the list where SA make money from, Nigeria is low low below the list.

Pls, it is not economically wise to fight SA now.

meavox:
WHY NIGERIA CANNOT AFFORD A STAND-OFF WITH SOUTH AFRICA - by Gimba Kakanda
Al-Jazeera, Opinion
9 Sept 2019


Today Abuja addresses Pretoria from a position of weakness.

Since the images and videos of the maiming and killing of black foreigners in South Africa began to emerge on various social media platforms last week, Nigeria has been an emotionally frayed place. Tens of thousands of Nigerians live in South African cities and in recent years, they have become frequent targets of xenophobic attacks.

This time, anger in Nigeria boiled over and young Nigerians took to the streets protesting South African aggression and unleashing some of their own on South African-owned businesses.

The Nigerian government felt pressured to act and subsequently recalled its ambassador from Pretoria and announced it was pulling out of the World Economic Forum meeting on Africa which was held in Cape Town. While some Nigerians welcomed the move, others thought it was not enough and called on their government to intervene and rescue its citizens.

Examples abound of powerful countries going to great lengths to protect and repatriate their citizens who have faced danger abroad.

But Nigeria is not one of them. Indeed, in the past, the country has stood its ground on a number of occasions when defending its national interests. In the 1960s, for example, Nigeria had a face-off with France over the latter's continuous tests of nuclear weapons in the Sahara desert. The government of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa acted decisively, breaking diplomatic relations with Paris, expelling the French ambassador and imposing a full embargo on French goods.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Nigeria led the international effort to isolate and pressure the apartheid regime in South Africa. It threatened economic action against Western powers for refusing to sanction the regime and supported the national liberation movements in Southern Africa, including the African Nation Congress (ANC), with millions of dollars annually.

In the 1990s, the country, under the leadership of military ruler Sani Abacha, defied international sanctions and welcomed a visit by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. It also directly intervened in the Liberian civil war, dispatching Nigerian troops to fight.

Most of the reactions to the violent attacks on Nigerians and other Africans in South Africa reflect a yearning for Abacha-style diplomacy. But as recent developments in its relations with the United States demonstrated, Nigeria can no longer wield such diplomatic power. Last month, the Nigerian government was spectacularly quick to react to the US's reciprocal rise in visa fees by reducing the charge for Americans applying for a visa to enter the country. And last year President Muhammadu Buhari decided to "keep quiet" on President Donald Trump's alleged "s***hole" remark about African nations.

At present, it is clear Nigeria does not have the military, the intelligence capability or the diplomatic clout to pursue a serious escalation against even a regional power, such as South Africa.

This diplomatic "standoff" with Pretoria has exposed the weakness Abuja has masked in parading itself as a self-styled "Giant of Africa". South Africa used to be a bully that Nigeria could restrain through its support for proxies inside the country and its neighbourhood. But since the end apartheid, this relationship has evolved into a regional competition, which Pretoria is winning.

After the sanctions and international isolation were lifted, South Africa quickly became the continent's more favoured ally of developed economies and foreign investors. Pretoria emerged as the recipient of the largest share of foreign direct investment in sub-Saharan Africa and in 2011 joined the BRIC countries in an economic pact formed to challenge the domination of Western economic policy.

It is also an important trading partner that Nigeria cannot afford to lose. South African businesses have major investments in the country, including the DSTV cable service, MTN telecom, the Shoprite supermarket chain and others. Nigeria exports $3.83bn worth of goods, mostly oil and oil products, to South Africa. By contrast, it imports just $514.3m of South African products, which accounts for less than one percent of total South African exports.

The more contrasting feature of the two economies, and which again highlights Nigeria's weakness is that while Abuja levers around a commodity-dependent economy, Pretoria has built a highly-diversified economy with a superior industrial structure. In other words, Nigeria needs South Africa economically, much more than South Africa needs Nigeria.

Nigeria's geopolitical power has also waned in recent years, while South Africa has remained a major regional power. Abuja has been battling with a rebellion in the north for years and has struggled to put a stop to flares of tribal violence regularly killing dozens of people. In its neighbourhood, Nigeria continues to feel largely insecure, surrounded by Francophone countries whose allegiances to France threaten the commitment of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to stability and non-aggression in the region.

The Nigerian government has also been unable to muster enough influence in the West to become a trusted partner. In 2014, the Obama administration, for example, blocked the sale of arms to the Nigerian military. The Trump administration decided to proceed with it but under heavy conditions which Nigerian officials have deemed "unacceptable". Western reluctance to sell weapons to Abuja has pressed it to seek arms on the black market. South Africa has embarrassed it twice in recent years by intercepting large arms shipment bound for Nigeria.

In this sense, the Nigerian government cannot do anything about the violence against its citizens in South Africa beyond making a few symbolic diplomatic moves and bringing up once again the Nigerian role in liberating South Africans from its white oppressors. It is clear that in doing so it is addressing Pretoria from the position of weakness.

Indeed, using persistent references to sub-Saharan African commonality and solidarity as a result of shared history, race and geography is not an effective foreign policy tool.

The idea of One Africa is a farce taken too far, and successive Nigerian elites have pandered to this fantasy to the detriment of national interests. The legacy of this pan-African misadventure is a geopolitically weak Nigeria which cannot stand up to for itself and for its citizens

This very much has to do with mismanagement of the economy. The redemption Nigeria needs is one that moves the country away from dependence on oil exports, foreign imports and interventions and towards diversification and industrialisation. We cannot afford to glorify the idea of producing pencils in the age of artificial intelligence any more.

Only if the country becomes materially secure and industrially productive will it be able to regain its soft power and international clout and stand up to the old bullies in its neighbourhood.


Source:
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/nigeria-nigerians-xenophobic-attacks-south-africa-190908200649204.html
You get all these when you use your power as a government to kill and subjugate your people. You get all these when you try to force your people to become poor and go back to old system of farming instead of embracing modern technological way of life. You get these when the government try to naturalize all foreign black people in your country because you feel their diversity is from a certain entity whereas other countries are taking measures to curtail the inflow of foreigners, but you open your borders for foreigners just because they are Fulanis, even when they kill your country man, you feel it isn't a problem, but you forget that the who world is watching. Trump said a government that kills her people is a shithole country.

Kingspin:
I read this article last week and agree with the author.

Nigeria is a powerless giant that has nothing to offer herself talk more of Africa neighbours.

Iamgrey5:
OGA calm down

Money reptraited by South African companies are not always captured in trade volumes between the two countries.

GoldHorse:
Why are you staying cursed then? You can easily "uncursed" yourself nah, se?

Iamgrey5:
@ embolden

This is a terrible misconception sir, we need each other.

They buy less than 20 million barrels of the total 1 billion barrels Nigeria sellsto the international market yearly which cost around $3.5bn.

But their companies make more than double that amount in profit every year from the Nigerian consumers.

If you are good at spotting gaps in a write up, you would notice that the writer never mentioned the profit the companies make for obvious reasons.

Corrosiveman:
When we tell them that the Zoo is crumbling they thought we were joking

How can a Country of over 200 million yet its only 20 million that pays tax

Like we said when Biafra comes we would teach you guys how to run a Supreme Nation

Princedapace:
Oga, if u know how mtn works, u won't be saying this. No country will deliberately joke with a big fish especially when that country knows it could be affected economically. SA knew they had nothing much to lose here.

worldclass68:
I totally disagree with you!!
fighting enemy within nah hin make Nigeria look like this,
trust me, it's far easier to fight against an outsider than to fight against someone from your family....of whom you might not even know!!

ebusmus:
PEOPLE LIKE YOU ARE WHY THIS SHITHOLE COUNTRY CAN NEVER BE LIBERATED IN THIS LIFETIME

Gadafii:
Mc oluomo boys alone for oshodi and idi araba go handle south Africa

Dasuks:
I understand what you're saying. But on the topic of relative strenght/clout/position the verdict is against us.

Nigeria's balance of payments with SA is negative on our end. More Nigerian trade interests will be hurt by say a cessation of economic relations.

On the other hand they have companies here but u have to remember that those companies have invested heavily in retail, entertainment, telecoms etc. Not like Nigeria did it either way by itself. They are actively engaged in our economy. Adding and extracting value. Already we cant play with their investments as a matter of convention and reputation internationally (future investors etc).

For eg MTN NG is in itself a story of mobile comm in Nigeria. It is not just making the most profit. It has also enriched the telecom space and helped improve the infrastructure. NG will gain from its imprint long after it has gone.

The presence of their companies here is more so capitalist conquest than the need for Nigeria as a unique entity. Nigeria is the largest market on the continent and yes the biggest source of their profits. Hence their presence. I noticed that Gamba omitted that but at the same time this is a govt to govt comparison not a wholistic economic analysis. Govts can affect/dictate trade relations in a direct sense. In contrast, U cannot order a company to leave just like that. It would incur consequences in overall business dealings and perceptions across the board.

And it's easy to say mtn gets most of its profits here but at the same time we get most of our mobile services from them. Filling the gap, untangling the details and ensuring their replacement of by a competent telecoms firm that would be willing to enter (after it sees what happened to mtn) would most likely prove less convenient and troublesome a relationship between that co and govt over time.

The key message remains that we have to patch up and assume a stronger position from where SA knows whose in charge

Princedapace:
Oga, if u know how mtn works, u won't be saying this. No country will deliberately joke with a big fish especially when that country knows it could be affected economically. SA knew they had nothing much to lose here.

Iamgrey5:
I know the way Mtn works bruv.

Nigeria is still where Mtn makes its largest income and it's in billion of dollars.

Who do you think are sponsoring these one sided articles popping up on the internet anyway?

DO you think those South Africans with the largest share in Mtn Nigeria will want to lose out ?

They were scared to death to the extent of providing free Sims forthose that return from Sa recently with about 40k air time and 9g data

Iamgrey5:
Op, this is an editorial Which is not the opinion of Aljasera but the Author



Gimba was one of the paid writers who wrote a Poorly written loopsided article during the heat of the reprisal attacks in Nigeria.

Gimba quickly referenced the American's response to our visa fee hikes at the outset of his Article but forgot to mention how America's foreign policy under Donald Trump is built on retaliation and counter measures regardless of the country involved.

e.g Donald is doing the same to China, Canada and is currently on his way to do the same to France.

More importantly, he also forgot to tell us how America and Southafrica can be compared when it comes to international diplomacy and relations.



Gimba forgot how Jacob Zuma rushed to Nigeria when Nigeria slap MTN with a $5bn fine

Gimba also failed to mention how South Africa quickly tried to relieve the tension when Nigeria reacted to the unjust deportation of Nigerians from South Africa under Jonathan

Gimba also deliberately omitted the Billions of dollars South African businesses make in Nigeria every year.

Gimba also failed to observe that other African countries with much closer ties to South Africa have reacted to the recent Xenophobic attacks. e.g Zambia and Mozambique

Bottom line, Gimba is a paid writer who is trying to desuade Nigerians from reacting in such a manner that would put South African interest in Nigeria at risk

Although, I am against jungle justice and mob action, I am also against the activities of Nigerians trying to betray our nation cheaply to foreign interest.

Iamgrey5:
@ emboldened is key

Still, this would never happen with writers such the author of this article who are on the payroll of those SA companies to sabotage any effort of Nigerians to negotiate from the position of strength in the future.

meavox:
WHY NIGERIA CANNOT AFFORD A STAND-OFF WITH SOUTH AFRICA - by Gimba Kakanda
Al-Jazeera, Opinion
9 Sept 2019


Today Abuja addresses Pretoria from a position of weakness.

Since the images and videos of the maiming and killing of black foreigners in South Africa began to emerge on various social media platforms last week, Nigeria has been an emotionally frayed place. Tens of thousands of Nigerians live in South African cities and in recent years, they have become frequent targets of xenophobic attacks.

This time, anger in Nigeria boiled over and young Nigerians took to the streets protesting South African aggression and unleashing some of their own on South African-owned businesses.

The Nigerian government felt pressured to act and subsequently recalled its ambassador from Pretoria and announced it was pulling out of the World Economic Forum meeting on Africa which was held in Cape Town. While some Nigerians welcomed the move, others thought it was not enough and called on their government to intervene and rescue its citizens.

Examples abound of powerful countries going to great lengths to protect and repatriate their citizens who have faced danger abroad.

But Nigeria is not one of them. Indeed, in the past, the country has stood its ground on a number of occasions when defending its national interests. In the 1960s, for example, Nigeria had a face-off with France over the latter's continuous tests of nuclear weapons in the Sahara desert. The government of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa acted decisively, breaking diplomatic relations with Paris, expelling the French ambassador and imposing a full embargo on French goods.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Nigeria led the international effort to isolate and pressure the apartheid regime in South Africa. It threatened economic action against Western powers for refusing to sanction the regime and supported the national liberation movements in Southern Africa, including the African Nation Congress (ANC), with millions of dollars annually.

In the 1990s, the country, under the leadership of military ruler Sani Abacha, defied international sanctions and welcomed a visit by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. It also directly intervened in the Liberian civil war, dispatching Nigerian troops to fight.

Most of the reactions to the violent attacks on Nigerians and other Africans in South Africa reflect a yearning for Abacha-style diplomacy. But as recent developments in its relations with the United States demonstrated, Nigeria can no longer wield such diplomatic power. Last month, the Nigerian government was spectacularly quick to react to the US's reciprocal rise in visa fees by reducing the charge for Americans applying for a visa to enter the country. And last year President Muhammadu Buhari decided to "keep quiet" on President Donald Trump's alleged "s***hole" remark about African nations.

At present, it is clear Nigeria does not have the military, the intelligence capability or the diplomatic clout to pursue a serious escalation against even a regional power, such as South Africa.

This diplomatic "standoff" with Pretoria has exposed the weakness Abuja has masked in parading itself as a self-styled "Giant of Africa". South Africa used to be a bully that Nigeria could restrain through its support for proxies inside the country and its neighbourhood. But since the end apartheid, this relationship has evolved into a regional competition, which Pretoria is winning.

After the sanctions and international isolation were lifted, South Africa quickly became the continent's more favoured ally of developed economies and foreign investors. Pretoria emerged as the recipient of the largest share of foreign direct investment in sub-Saharan Africa and in 2011 joined the BRIC countries in an economic pact formed to challenge the domination of Western economic policy.

It is also an important trading partner that Nigeria cannot afford to lose. South African businesses have major investments in the country, including the DSTV cable service, MTN telecom, the Shoprite supermarket chain and others. Nigeria exports $3.83bn worth of goods, mostly oil and oil products, to South Africa. By contrast, it imports just $514.3m of South African products, which accounts for less than one percent of total South African exports.

The more contrasting feature of the two economies, and which again highlights Nigeria's weakness is that while Abuja levers around a commodity-dependent economy, Pretoria has built a highly-diversified economy with a superior industrial structure. In other words, Nigeria needs South Africa economically, much more than South Africa needs Nigeria.

Nigeria's geopolitical power has also waned in recent years, while South Africa has remained a major regional power. Abuja has been battling with a rebellion in the north for years and has struggled to put a stop to flares of tribal violence regularly killing dozens of people. In its neighbourhood, Nigeria continues to feel largely insecure, surrounded by Francophone countries whose allegiances to France threaten the commitment of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to stability and non-aggression in the region.

The Nigerian government has also been unable to muster enough influence in the West to become a trusted partner. In 2014, the Obama administration, for example, blocked the sale of arms to the Nigerian military. The Trump administration decided to proceed with it but under heavy conditions which Nigerian officials have deemed "unacceptable". Western reluctance to sell weapons to Abuja has pressed it to seek arms on the black market. South Africa has embarrassed it twice in recent years by intercepting large arms shipment bound for Nigeria.

In this sense, the Nigerian government cannot do anything about the violence against its citizens in South Africa beyond making a few symbolic diplomatic moves and bringing up once again the Nigerian role in liberating South Africans from its white oppressors. It is clear that in doing so it is addressing Pretoria from the position of weakness.

Indeed, using persistent references to sub-Saharan African commonality and solidarity as a result of shared history, race and geography is not an effective foreign policy tool.

The idea of One Africa is a farce taken too far, and successive Nigerian elites have pandered to this fantasy to the detriment of national interests. The legacy of this pan-African misadventure is a geopolitically weak Nigeria which cannot stand up to for itself and for its citizens

This very much has to do with mismanagement of the economy. The redemption Nigeria needs is one that moves the country away from dependence on oil exports, foreign imports and interventions and towards diversification and industrialisation. We cannot afford to glorify the idea of producing pencils in the age of artificial intelligence any more.

Only if the country becomes materially secure and industrially productive will it be able to regain its soft power and international clout and stand up to the old bullies in its neighbourhood.


Source:
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/nigeria-nigerians-xenophobic-attacks-south-africa-190908200649204.html

GoldHorse:
... and what are you wanting for? If you can't "uncursed" yourself please help "PEOPLE LIKE US" liberate the country nah!