Guardian How to tackle Nigeria’s woes, by U.S. ex-envoy, Campbell SUNDAY, 23 JUNE 2013 20:17 FROM MARTINS OLOJA, WASHINTON DCNEWS - NATIONAL • Says alienation of the North a huge challenge for 2015 • Money influence will be tested again at polls, he claims • The region is being engaged, Ambassador Adefuye affirms FORMER United States (U.S.) Ambassador to Nigeria and author of Nigeria: Dancing on the Brink, John Campbell, has again warned about implications of complacency of political leaders and the elite over the seeming alienation of the core North. He also noted that the future of the country depends on the handling of the current socio-political condition of the area he claims is among the most volatile and vulnerable in the country. But Nigeria’s envoy to the U.S., Prof. Ade Adefuye, said that the Federal Government has been addressing the issues raised about the North by Campell. He too spoke with The Guardian briefly in Washington when National Institute of Policy & Strategic Studies (NIPSS) study team in Washington DC, led by the Director-General, Prof. Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, visited him in his office. He was asked to react to the charge by the U.S. diplomat. Campbell, who spoke with The Guardian in a telephone interview in Washington DC, noted that leaders at all levels in Nigeria should pre-occupy themselves with serious discussions on how to address exclusion of the North from economic activities in the country. According to the ex-envoy who received some harsh words from the Federal Government on his opinion before the 2011 polls about the consequences of failure to address the apparent dichotomy between the North and the South then, the leaders in Nigeria should begin to address the ticklish challenges in the Niger Delta, Middle Belt and the core North now lest the 2015 elections would face some political dangers. His words: “As a friend of Nigeria, I have to tell the truth. I may be proved wrong in future but at the time of speaking or writing the truth, I believe I have a responsibility to tell… “About the state of politics in Nigeria, the question that has to be addressed include: whether money will again play an overwhelming role in political party rivalry in the next election. My concern is whether the process will be different from the 2007 through 2011 when money reportedly decided the outcome. In 2011, recall that it was a contest between the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and the sitting President now President Goodluck Jonathan… Then you recall that the sitting president reportedly had a clear advantage… “But the greater challenge before 2015 is there seems to be no relationship between politics in Nigeria and the huge challenges that Nigeria faces. There is no discussion at the moment of the problems of alienation of the North. There is no serious discussion of the major political crisis and religious conflicts in the Middle Belt. There is an eye on only the North-East and others even then this is the thing: political leaders and indeed leaders in the country are not publicly discussing these issues with a view to finding lasting solution… “The lingering issues in the North are germane and critical enough to the future of Nigeria… From the issues on ground in Nigeria, I see very little of mechanism to defuse tension in the Niger Delta. The area remains a flash-point. I see escalation of crisis and indeed resurgence if President Jonathan does not return for a second term. This is crystal clear from flashes we can see… “We see politics now mostly around personalities. Politics should address (at the moment) the main challenges the country faces. There should be ideas on how to move forward. I would like to see political figures speak openly and seriously on how to address the problems of the North…In Nigeria now, the North is the greatest threat to the stability of the Nigerian state…” On why he is so consistent about the problem of the North noted in his book on Nigeria: Dancing on the Brink? Ambassador Campbell added: “I am personally devoted to the unity of Nigeria. Any alternative will be disastrous. You can feel the pain of continued bloodshed in the North that has been obviously under-reported. The radical insurgents, Islamists in the North, appear hell bent despite efforts to contain them… They even attack northern Muslims and that reflects the complexity of the problems. But there should be no missing the point: you can see the discrepancies in the social statistics in the North…There is high level illiteracy, there is no improvement in the economy of the North. Look at the collapse of the textile industry in the North… “There is a sense in which some observers can say there are other challenges too as I said earlier in the Niger Delta and the Middle Belt. The far North’s is much harder to deal with. This is the truth that we must face. After all, the Middle Belt is part of the larger North. The situation in the North has got worse. It is seen in the violence in the North, in the huge number of illiterates in the North who know only a few verses in the Quran. “Most of the elements in the North do not participate in modern economy. This is the challenge that politicians and leaders at all levels should be facing now…” Campbell’s second book on Nigeria is said to be ready for release any moment from now. But Adefuye countered Campbell, saying: “The Federal Government is fully aware of the challenges in the North and that is why even Nigeria’s Embassy in the U.S. that I have the privilege of leading at the moment is collaborating with Corporate Council on Africa, a think-tank, to organise a summit on agriculture in the North. Two weeks ago, two commissioners from Katsina State were in the U.S. to consolidate the process. Katsina government has been very serious about this because it is the arrow-head. “We have discussed with Vice President of Oversees Investment Corporation, Mimi Aleyma Hou. This will be organised before the end of the year. There will also be a huge summit on ICT in the U.S. for the country and the North will be part of the collaboration of efforts to address skills gap and open market opportunities in this regard. The Presidency has been doing a lot to address escalations in the North and that is why the Presidency has been doing all that is being done in the North-East to contain the insurgency…” John Campbell is the Ralph Bunche senior fellow for Africa Policy Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in New York. Rowman & Littlefield published his book, Nigeria: Dancing on the Brink. The second edition is coming soon. He writes the blog “Africa in Transition” and edits the Nigeria Security Tracker. From 1975 to 2007, Ambassador Campbell served as a U.S. Department of State Foreign Service Officer. He served twice in Nigeria as political counsellor from 1988 to 1990, and as ambassador from 2004 to 2007. The diplomat’s additional overseas postings include Lyon, Paris, Geneva and Pretoria. He also served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Resources, Dean of the Foreign Service Institute’s School of Language Studies and Director of the Office of United Nations (UN) Political Affairs. From 2007 to 2008, he was a visiting professor of International Relations at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was also a Department of State mid-career fellow at the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University. Before his career in the Foreign Service, he had taught British and French history at Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Virginia. Nigeria: Dancing on the Brink explores the country’s post-colonial history and examines the events and conditions that have propelled the troubled second largest economy in Africa to the edge that is fast diminishing its profile in international politics.
Posted on: Mon, 24 Jun 2013 07:46:35 +0000
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