One critical success ( or is it failure?) factor in a nation’s foreign policy is the domestic or internal development. A tested thesis on internationsl relations says ultimately, foreign policy is an an abridged version of internal policy. This truism was once again played out recently. President Goodluck Jonathan cut short his Southern African trip to attend to urgent security challenges in the country, the latest then being the killing of some 20 policemen in Nassarawa State by some armed cultists while the most notoriously recurring being Borno and Yobe. The two states together with Adamawa state had since come under the heels of emergency rule. The
lesson here is that, governance crisis at home keeps undermining the historic commendable relevance of Nigeria in international relations. We just must put our house in order before we can have a sustainable foreign policy. Conservative pragmatic Sir Tafawa Balewa of Nigeria in a reply to the radical and ideological call of the late Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana for urgent pan Africanism and internationalism in the 60s retorted; ” Let us first put our own houses in order” .
With the benefit of historic highlight Balewa was right; in February 1966, Nkrumah overthrown while on a state visit to North Vietnam and China, in a military coup led by Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka.
It is significant and commendable that the President answered the call of national duty with a nation-wide broadcast that among others reaffirms commitment to an indivisible Nigeria based on law and order.
Notwithstanding, the insecurity factor which necessitated the President Goodluck calling off the Namibia trip, the significance of the recently concluded President Jonathan’s cut trip to South Africa cannot be overstated. Both Nigeria and South Africa are like twin nations, albeit non-identical ones. In land mass, the two countries are among the biggest. South Africa occupies some 1,221,037 km2 . Nigeria is also a huge land mass of some almost 1,000,000 surface area (square kilometres). South Africa’s Population of some 48,810,427 is a third of Nigeria’s 165 million population. The two are regional powers of ECOWAS and SADDCC sub regional groups of the Western and Southern Africa respectively. They are also football-loving nations. Nigeria is three times winner of Africa Cup of Nations championship hosted by South Africa. SA won the cup in 1996 again hosted by South Africa boycotted by Nigeria, no thanks to Abacha dictatorship.
In terms of economics, South Africa paraded an estimated gross domestic product (GDP) of $368 billion in 2011 as Africa’s biggest economy, while Nigeria Africa’s second biggest economy by GDP, recorded some $232 billion. The forecast is that with Nigeria’s growth rate of seven percent, Nigeria could even overtake South Africa’s economy by 2015. The growth drivers are almost the same; export of raw materials. In the case of Nigeria, crude oil and gas while South Africa has numerous important mineral resources, notably gold, iron, and phosphates as well as diamonds, manganese and platinum. Of course unlike Nigeria that has regretablly been pushed back to de-industrialisation with just less than 4 percent manufacturing value added
to GDP, South Africa parades good and the highest manufacturing value added number of 24 percent being the leading industrialised nation in the continent. Over 100 South African companies are doing business in Nigeria in real service sectors such as Telecommunications, Banking, property development and entertainment industries like the DSTV. Conversely reportedly 100 000 Nigerians live in SA doing God-knows-what. While the rate of return on South African investment in Nigeria is in double digit, capital flight and abysmal stolen funds are taken to SA by Nigerian corrupt elite. President Jonathan acknowledges the unfavourable balance of trade in favour of SA, but he offered no practical proposals to reverse the trend beyond tons of signed MOUs the contents of which are yet to be made public to determine their
national relevance. Like in football Nigeria seems excited to collect the trophy while SA counts the dollars as a permanent host nation of global tournaments with relatively efficient and superior infrastructure.
The relations between the two countries has historically been characterised by contestation and cooperation . During the discredited apartheid order, Nigeria under the leadership of Tafawa Balewa in the 60s put pressure on South Africa to withdraw from the Commonwealth. Conversely (and indeed ironically,) Nigeria was suspended from the Commonwealth at a summit in 1995 attended by South African President Nelson Mandela following the execution of Nobel Peace Prize nominee Ken Saro-Wiwa by Abacha regime. However the sustained legitimate struggle against apartheid confered moral and political claim to Nigeria. It is commendable that
President Goodluck Jonathan extensively brought to the fore the details about the sacrifices of Nigeria and Nigerians in the total liberation of the Southern African countries of Namibia, Angola and Mozambique at a time all weather friend nations in Europe and America were in bed with the most inhuman apartheid order.
While welcoming President Jonathan, President Jacob Zuma, South African President commendably singled out the historic role of Nigeria. According to him; “Nigeria was one of the foremost supporters of the South African liberation struggle. We remain grateful for the solidarity and support during that most difficult period in the history of our country and people, the fight against apartheid colonialism.” But Godliness is even more in the details of Nigeria’s sacrifices, as captured by President Jonathan during his speech to the South African Parliament in Cape Town, on the May 7, 2013.
Witness him’; ” In those dark seasons, Nigerians stood by their South African brothers and sisters, because we shared your pain and concerns….. Suffice it to say that throughout the long-drawn, anti-apartheid struggle, although we were not geographically contiguous, Nigeria was, nevertheless, considered a Frontline State, by the sheer fact of our commitment to the just struggle for freedom in Southern Africa….. It was for this reason the Southern African Relief Fund (SARF) was created.
This was funded with deductions from the salary of every Nigerian worker, irrespective of rank, both in the public and private sectors as well as donations from ordinary Nigerians in all walks of life, including students. This fund was placed at the disposal of the liberation struggle…Nigeria provided scholarships for students from South Africa. Our musicians waxed albums in support of the anti-apartheid struggle, a memorable one in this respect being Sonny Okosun’s timeless piece, “Fire in Soweto”. ….At the international level, Nigeria gave leadership at the United Nations, the Organization of African Unity, as it then was, the Commonwealth and several other fora in the fight against apartheid. For instance, we chaired the UN Special Committee Against Apartheid (UNSCAA) for most of its existence”.
Nigeria cannot overstate it’s role in the liberation of SA precisely because, there is a new generation of SA leaders and citizens who either do not know or are even in denial of the African solidarity reciprocating with regretable violence and xenophobia.
The relations between the two countries in the post-apartheid era have been further strengthened with the inauguration of the Bi-National Commission (BNC) in October 1999, co-chaired by the Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa and the Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Are we back to mutually rewarding sustained cooperation between the two countriees? The bane of the bi-commission is that it is strong on business, but miserably weak on people-to-people relations. Remember the yellow fever card crisis? We must democratise the Bi-Commission with bottom-up mass participation of vibrant civil society organisations, especially the trade unions in the two countries. We cannot drive development agenda without the people and organized labour like NLC and COSATU. Score of billionaires in the continent according to Forbes report are from SA and Nigeria. It is unacceptable therefore that the two countries still parade jobless growths with massive unemployment and poverty in spite of abundant wealth of the two countries. Most Nigerians and South Africans certainly set their hearts at even more dynamic and progressive relations!
Issa Aremu mni (comradearemu@yahoo.com)
