Time to Redefine Who Our Friends Are

By

Solomon Iliya

smitronix@gmail.com

 

Since 1st October and the waning euphoria of our Golden Anniversary Celebrations and the attendant tragedies that went with it, we have been faced with quite a handful of challenges which in my opinion should make us pause and ponder who our friends are in the international system (that is if we actually have any).

First there was the twin bomb blasts near Eagle Square (imagine the embarrassment if the bombs were actually able to have been placed within the cordon of the Square itself, what with all the foreign visitors we had then). Now there is the current imbroglio over the shipment of weapons from Iran. While we are reeling from the shock, another discovery of a shipment of high grade heroin or cocaine just got discovered having originated from the same Iran. Meanwhile the so-called Islamic Republic of Iran is keeping mum over all these embarrassing discoveries  

To make matters worse, one of the suspects who had been holed up in the Iranian Embassy sneaked out of Nigeria with the delegation of no less a person than the Foreign Minister of Iran himself! The Foreign Minister of Iran denied the man’s diplomatic immunity being waived so he could be questioned by our security agencies.

There is no denying that the provisions of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961 give diplomats immunity. Article 31 (1) of the Convention in particular states that;

“ A diplomatic agent shall enjoy immunity from the criminal jurisdiction of the receiving State.

He shall also enjoy immunity from its civil and administrative jurisdiction...”

Article 31 (2) further states that;

“A diplomatic agent is not obliged to give evidence as witness.”

While in the interests of good diplomatic relations there is need to respect the sovereignty of diplomatic missions and diplomats of foreign countries there need for countries to respect the their host countries as the Convention further states in Article 41 (1) that;

“Without prejudice to their privileges and immunities, it is the duty of all persons enjoying such privileges and immunities to respect the laws and regulations of the receiving State. They also have a duty not to interfere in the internal affairs of the receiving State.”

Further to that, Iran reserves the right to waive the immunity of the diplomat in question considering gravity of the situation at hand as stated in Article 32 (1) and (2).

Apparently, Iran has chosen not to respect Nigeria and has either condoned or encouraged its citizens to insult the sovereignty of Nigeria. This does not just go for Iran. A lot of other countries have done so many other such things. One can safely make an assumption that for every one discovery of such containers, ten might have slipped through. Wherever those weapons were bound for, Gaza Strip or whatever, it is the duty of every nation to respect Nigeria’s decision to be neutral in whatever conflict they are involved with whoever.

The same parties to whatever conflict wherever,  have their own interests in creating all manners of problems for Nigeria thus it is high time we defined our interests and align our friendships accordingly. International relations is centred on selfish reasons and Nigeria should wake up to that reality. The same foreign states are keeping money stolen from Nigeria and habouring criminals on the run from Nigeria. Sometime back, Germany did the same thing backs sneaking out a German criminal who took refuge in the German Embassy. These same countries are so ruthless with any Nigerian alleged to have committed any offence in their own countries so why do they find it convenient to shield their own citizens who break Nigerian laws?  If they love Nigeria that much, they should return such loot without any caveats. There is no denying that Nigeria has made so much sacrifices for international peace and security without thought of any reward and our citizens are despised and harassed in states that claim to be our friends.

On the home front, we need to review our foreign policy for a start. Secondly we need to review the modus operandi of our intelligence and security agencies to meet current challenges. It is sad that the foundation of the formation of our intelligence and security apparatus is not geared to dealing with current threats, rather, they were established  to protect past autotratic regimes from coups. These agencies have still continued to operate like that and as far as they are concerned their role is to watch the army so they can only respond to the emerging challenges rather than taking a proactive stance. I rest my case.