THE battle for the soul of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has displaced from serious public dis-course from the scandalous revelations about Nigeria by Wikileaks. It is a website owned by Julian Assange, which burrows into the overt adventures of United States [US] in other countries.
The backdoor moves by members of the National Assembly to hijack the machinery of their parties have thrown up another major crisis in PDP, which has apparently tried to overshadow the Wikileaks report.
Two things emerge from the issues raised in the report. One is about the sovereignty of the country. The other is the quality of its leadership over the years. The two dovetail because of the concept of state, which Maclver sees as an“organisation of which government is the administrative organ.”
Wikileaks gave a graphic account of the enormous influence of the American government on Nigeria and how the Royal Dutch oil giant, Shell controls the system. It provides an insider account of the inner working of government in Nigeria, based on the whims and caprices of the US.
It is natural that no government, with a conviction that is in power, would openly admit that it had at any point in time admitted ever willingly relinquishing its powers or in part to any other country, no matter how power. Otherwise, it would not have the moral and legitimate right to be in office.
However, Nigerians know the capabilities, limits and weaknesses of our system, hence, Wikileaks merely amplified what had hitherto been discussed in hushed tones in many circle at home.
Such reports would have led to dire consequences for the local media if it had emanated from them, as the Nigerian media is treated with disdain and scorn by our local colonialists.
The scoop by the US website on Nigeria casts a slur on the integrity of our leaders, who often put their trust in leaders of other countries on critical national issues, including security, sovereignty and governance, instead of working to win the confidence, trust and understanding of their citizens.
A core Awoist, Chief Supo Sonibare, put the issue more succinctly when he situated the Wikileaks saga on the character of Nigerian leadership over the years. “Wikileaks has only confirmed the predatory nature of the leadership structure in our country. If we had worthy leaders, they would be engaging the USA and Shell in a patriotic reciprocal strategic manner. UAC was even more domineering with regard to its influence, control of the economy and contact with our founding fathers.” No foreigner can love Nigeria more than its citizens.
This principle underscores the importance the US government attaches to all its citizens wherever they reside in any part of the world. But our own foreign policy does not reflect such feelings nor actually places serious emphasis that our kind gesture to other nations must be transparently reciprocal. Besides, it does not take into account of the necessity for a sound domestic policy, which could make our independence as a sovereign state more meaningful.
The end of World War ll saw the emergence of the non-alignment movement, a concept, which though was not equated with neutrality. It was founded on the principle that other nation should not ally themselves to the defunct Soviet Union, or US in their cold war of supremacy.
Thus, their state, political, economic and social policies were to be based on domestic interests rather than on the basis of the interest of external powers. The foreign policy of a country is a weapon it deploys to influence or seeks to influence the external world based on her own domestic interest.
Furthermore, its foreign policy is dependent largely on the character of its political leadership, demographic structure, domestic reality, political structure, economy and military power.
More than 50 years after independence, we can only point at a few areas where we have been able to showcase our huge and diverse potential. These include areas of peacekeeping operations involving our military officers and men. We have failed to harness to greatness our advantage in human population and as an oil-producing nation. We are at the crossroads because of the untoward character of political leadership and its failure to build stable political institutions.
Advanced countries will continue to dictate the shape of government policies in our country, unless we take pragmatic steps towards achieving a sound economic base, stable political system. We must combine all the major instruments for implementing foreign policies like diplomacy, propaganda, militarism, and economic weapons to keep Wikileaks at bay.
