Why Nigeria Won’t Be on UN Security Council
By
Sam Nda-Isaiah
ndaisaiah@yahoo.com
Professor Ibrahim Gambari,
Nigeria’s former foreign affairs minister and currently an undersecretary
working with Kofi Annan at the United Nations in New York, in a recent
interview, painted a bleak prospect of Nigeria getting a permanent seat at
the United Nations Security Council.
There are currently moves to expand the permanent membership of the
Security Council at the UN. Two seats have been reserved for Africa. The
chances of Nigeria getting any of the two slots, Professor Gambari
explained, are very slim. The undersecretary at the United Nations should
know. Not only is diplomacy his metier, the United Nations is his forte.
He attempted to give reasons why that is so, but he was too polite (for
the good of everyone) to tell the whole truth.
Three countries in Africa, namely, Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt are in
a cutthroat competition to get the two allotted seats. Egypt will get one
because it would be construed that both the Arab countries and the Islamic
world would be represented by Egypt’s presence at the Security Council. It
is also obvious that most countries of the west would also support its
candidacy as they regard Egypt as a friendly nation. That, of course,
leaves the real competition between Nigeria and South Africa. South Africa
only recently emerged from apartheid. If this competition were to be in
the early 1990s when South Africa would have been busy healing its wounds
and trying to join the world club of decent governments, Nigeria would
probably have got it on a platter of gold even if it were under a military
regime. And besides, South Africa would not even be seeking a permanent
seat at that time.
But today, the variables have changed. South Africa has managed its
post-apartheid years very well. Nelson Mandela, who took over from the
mean apartheid regime, confirmed that he is indeed a statesman as the
world had all along suspected. He, much more than anyone else, is
responsible for the stability and international clout South Africa has
built today. He did not see his ascension to power as an opportunity to
avenge his long incarceration by old enemies. He considered the apartheid
ancien regime a part of South African history and accorded due respect to
his white predecessors. That has principally contributed to the stability
that the country enjoys today.
Another reason for the international weight of South Africa and its
relative peace is that Mandela, unlike our own president, is truly a “big
man”. If the former South African president had elected, he would still
have been the president of South Africa today. But he refused even a
second term, which would have been his right to aspire for, anyway. Even
before going halfway through his first term, he had let it be known that
he would do only one term. To give effect to that, he ensured that his
immediate deputy, Thabo Mbeki, was the one in charge of running the
country. The world knew a long time beforehand who Mandela’s successor
would be and accorded the same kind of respect to the would-be successor.
By so doing, Mandela ensured a peaceful transition from one democratic
administration to another and from one generation to another. South Africa
is today the better for it. It is different with Nigeria. With only 294
days to his exit, Obasanjo is not grooming any successor, because there is
none. He is busy scheming on how to remain in office instead.
Today, South Africa is not being classified among countries that could
become failed states as international intelligence groups always
prognosticate for Nigeria. South Africa is not under any threat of any
“return” to military rule whatsoever as there was never any military rule
in the first place. In Nigeria, nobody can swear that the military will
not return tomorrow, given the way the country is currently run.
Corruption has been kept under check in South Africa. And, you will never
hear of the state security agencies or even the police arresting
journalists as Obasanjo did to two journalists recently. Press freedom is
at full bloom. These are some of the factors that will become germane as
new permanent council members are considered.
By contrast, the man who took over power in Nigeria in post-military
Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, has proved to be a disaster of immeasurable
proportions. He has been a negation of all that was thought of him.
Obasanjo came to power on a crest of unprecedented goodwill and hope.
Nigerians thought the rigmarole had ended. But unlike Mandela, Obasanjo
saw his new station as Nigeria’s president an opportunity to get even with
old enemies. He even found time to create new ones. First, he had to deal
with members of the Abacha family, as Abacha himself has since escaped to
the great beyond. The president also heard along the way that General
Ishaya Bamaiyi was an accomplice with Abacha in keeping him in jail. So he
quickly hounded the former chief of army staff into prison with handcuffs
and leg chains. Then he remembered Major Hamza Al-Mustapha’s role in his
tribulations. The former Abacha chief security officer is still
languishing in jail.
While he was dealing with his enemies and creating new ones, he found that
his four-year tenure was almost up. The 2003 presidential election was
near and he had achieved nothing. The situation in Nigeria had become
worse than he met it. There was no fuel, no electricity power supply, food
became too expensive, security of life and property was as if there was no
government in place. But it was at the elections, in the full glare of
international monitors, that Obasanjo showed the stuff of which he is
really made of.
Politicians, especially devious ones, think of the next election and how
to manipulate it, while statesmen think of the next generation and are
perpetually concerned about the future of their countries. That is
basically the difference between Nelson Mandela and Olusegun Obasanjo.
While Mandela busied his mind as his country’s president on how the next
generation would take over from him, giving up his right to seek a second
term consequently, Obasanjo cooked up evil in his mind and schemed on how
to rig his re-election in the most scandalous election ever. It was not
his business at all if democracy or even the country survived. And who
cares about the next generation as long as he remains in Aso Rock? As if
that was not disgraceful enough, he even attempted getting a third term.
South Africa has a renewing democracy and Nigeria doesn’t have a democracy
at all. Just compare the re-election of Mbeki and that of Obasanjo. The
international community has been watching and those that are going to
choose between Nigeria and South Africa have taken note of all these.
Nigeria remains very unstable and if Obasanjo decides to play games with
the census figures or an interim national government (ING) or attempts
anything to remain in power beyond May 29, 2007, then the UN should
actually be thinking of managing the fall-outs that are imminent and not
inviting the country to be on the permanent membership of the Security
Council. And as Gambari said in his Daily Trust interview, a permanent
member should be helping in making decisions on how to put out fire in
other parts of the world and not be a source of fire itself.
If we had been blessed with a better leader than Obasanjo, our democracy
would have been flourishing by now. South Africa has had a transition from
one democratic leader to another and its elections are still respectable
and accepted. The government has never attempted to close down any radio
station (remember Freedom Radio, Kano), or arrest journalists (remember
the sedition case). Mbeki has not brought down the infrastructure he met.
The South African society may be renown for violent crimes but the police
and security agencies continue to bring criminals to book no matter how
highly placed they are. Compare this with the murder cases of Bola Ige,
Marshal Harry, etc.
If new permanent members are going to be elected within the next year,
Nigeria will not be among the chosen and we all should know why. That’s
the very high price we are going to pay for keeping Obasanjo in power this
long. Pity!
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