Thinking: The American-Nigerian Presidents and Their Styles

It bemused me when African leaders openly proclaim their incapacity and incapability by beckoning on foreign bodies to help them and the continent as if Africa can and will never stand on its own. Criticising every government's policy should not always be a leit motif because at times, one would repeatedly sound trite but then one cannot be quiet. Nigerian Presidents over the years especially since the emergence of democracy in 1999 can at best be termed American-Nigerian Presidents.

This is because the leaders seem to be responsive to the White House than to Nigerians. During the heated debate of the third term agenda of President Obasanjo, he was extremely relatively quiet when the whole internal politics was so hot and the hullabaloo overshadowed the entire polity, the President never said anything. Despite the noises at home for him to declare his intention, he never did, only for Nigerians to hear as an aside when their President visited Washington that he discussed his third term agenda there, which George W. Bush vehemently opposed.

That bolstered the Nigerian Senate in a way and the structure was successfully dismantled. As if that was not enough, President Umar Yar'Adua came into office amid ill-feelings and bad reactions among Nigerians on the election that brought him into office which Nigerians described as being massively rigged and flawed. Nigerians called the elections 'daylight robbery' yet the President said nothing about it. Rather, he was more concerned with the relative snub President Obama gave his regime by going to Ghana.

The Yar'Adua administration handled the issue as if without Obama coming to Nigeria, Nigeria would collapse and refused to be a country again. Later, Hilary Clinton visited and to the utmost surprise of Nigerians, their President confessed to the erstwhile American Secretary of States that the elections that brought him into office were widely flawed. This was another slap.

One unique thing to note is that this present dispensation combined all the situations described above. Can anyone remember that President Goodluck Jonathan declared his intention to run for office in 2010 after he had an encounter with President Obama at the Nuclear Energy Summit? That was when and where his inspiration came from. He came back renewed and reinvigorated.

Quite recently, President Obama refused to visit Nigeria and rather than learn from the past the Jonathan-led administration took it so centrally as if without the visit, Nigeria would seize to function efficiently. Anyway, he acted like an 'independent' sovereign much to the chagrin of Washington by allowing Omar al Bashar of Sudan who is wanted by the ICC into Nigeria for the special AU summit. Next, he went to China.

Nigerians have been worried about the whole political jamboree, brouhaha and pandemonium as regards the President's intention to contest in 2015. So much tension and at best uncertainty has been generated in the land. Words from the horse's mouth are the best. The President has remained calm and refused to say anything only to attend the 68th UN summit in New York and Nigerians wake to hear that their President has diplomatically declared his intention to run for the election in 2015.

Then one is poised to ask, are they Nigerian Presidents or Nigerian-American Presidents? They find it hard to discuss and talk to their own people but always so easy and convenient for them to visit or see White House officials first before owing up to the responsibilities they owe Nigerians not Americans. In order words, it means Nigerians are not unique to them since they are not the ones who will get them into office. Once Washington has endorsed it, they can come back home with zeal and perfect the rigging.

GOD bless the People of Nigeria
GOD bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria
GOD bless Africa