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

EU demands Clarification on US Espionage Acts on its Diplomats; Warns of Consequences

A new word ought to surface just as the United States got 'Romnesia' (a disease that makes you forget anything that makes you bad) during the Presidential debates and campaigns. Presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, always did not usually remember anything he had said that contradicted him. There would probably be another cyber, internet and espionage coinage superior to Wikileaks; maybe termed 'Snowdenvirus' due to the recent leaks by Edward Snowden.

Snowden's new leak showed that the United States had been spying on European diplomats. Reacting to this, the president of the European parliament has demanded an explanation from US authorities over the latest revelation that EU diplomatic missions in Washington, New York and Brussels were under electronic surveillance from the NSA.

“I am deeply worried and shocked about the allegations of US authorities spying on EU offices,” said the President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz. “If the allegations prove to be true, it would be an extremely serious matter which will have a severe impact on EU-US relations.”

“On behalf of the European Parliament, I demand full clarification and require further information speedily from the US authorities with regard to these allegations," he added. Meanwhile, Germany's justice minister also called for an immediate explanation from the United States saying the news that Washington bugged European Union offices was "reminiscent of the Cold War."

"It must ultimately be immediately and extensively explained by the American side whether media reports about completely disproportionate tapping measures by the US in the EU are accurate or not," Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said in a statement.

Other EU diplomats also expressed shock concerning the latest batch of revelations in the NSA leak, reported by Der Spiegel magazine on Saturday. "If these reports are true, it's disgusting,” Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn told Der Spiegel. "The United States would be better off monitoring its secret services rather than its allies,” Asselborn continued. “We must get a guarantee from the very highest level now that this stops immediately."

A spokesman for the Office of the US Director of National Intelligence had no comment on the Der Spiegel story, Reuters reported. Der Spiegel, quoting from a September 2010 "top secret" US National Security Agency (NSA) document leaked by former CIA employee Edward Snowden, reported on Saturday the NSA was eavesdropping on the EU’s internal computer networks in Washington, as well as at the 28-member bloc UN office in New York.

The German magazine also reported that five years ago, the NSA also targeted telecommunications at the Justus Lipsius building in Brussels, home to the European Council, where all EU member states have their offices. Snowden, 30, fled the US for Hong Kong in May, just weeks before The Guardian and Washington Post published details he provided about a top-secret US government surveillance programme that accumulated internet and telephone traffic both at home and abroad.

The whistleblower is presently in the transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport, where it is believed he is attempting to gain political asylum in Ecuador. Lode Vanoost, former deputy speaker of the Belgian parliament, believes that the main purpose of the US surveillance programme was “economic spying” on the EU.

“At the moment, the EU is negotiating a new free trade agreement with the United States,” the former deputy speaker noted. “On the economic level, [the US] is losing ground everywhere,” he said. “Look at what the BRIC countries are doing. The EU is having stronger ties with Russia, with Africa, with Latin America. And the US doesn’t seem to get its economic priorities imposed as it used to. So what I see is a big risk for economic spying.”

He added that there is “too much at stake” for there to be a total breakdown in US-EU bilateral relations, however, “behind closed doors there will be some very tough words” exchanged between EU and American officials.

Ecuador has revealed that the choosing and the safe landing of Snowden in any destination is in the hand of Russia. Russia seems to be the love, the land currently romanced by anybody dissatisfied with the condition and system of the obtainable in any Western nation as noticed in the case of the French actor, Gerard Depardieu, who recently received Russian citizenship in protest against high taxes in France. This has also been the case with anybody not comfortable with/in Russia.

African Leaders prefer United States to China - Obama

President Barack is in Johannnesburg for his second stop on his week-long African tour where he is expected to promote democracy and food security.

White House officials hope Obama's three-nation tour of Africa - his first substantial visit to the continent since taking office in 2009 - will compensate for what some view as years of neglect by America's first black president.

Obama has been conscious on the second country he is visiting which is South Africa because of the health condition of the man who is just like him; the first black president of South Africa - Nelson Mandela. Mandela's ex-wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, said his condition had improved in the past few days. The visit has not been all rosy and jaw-jaw.

Nearly 1,000 trade unionists, Muslim activists and South African Communist Party members marched through the capital to the US Embassy, where they burned an American flag and called Obama's foreign policy 'arrogant and oppressive'.

Muslim activists held prayers in a car park outside the embassy. Leader Imam Sayeed Mohammed told the group: "We hope that Mandela feels better and that Obama can learn from him."

New York Times reports that Obama sees Mandela, also known as Madiba, as a hero. Whether they are able to meet or not, officials said his trip would serve largely as a tribute to the anti-apartheid leader. Like Mandela, Obama has received the Nobel Peace Prize and both men were the first black presidents of their nations.

Madiba was enamoured by the young Illinois senator's charisma while Mandela enthralled Obama when they met in 2005. Obama is to visit Robben Island, where Mandela spent years in prison under South Africa's former white minority regime. He told reporters his message in South Africa would draw from the lessons of Mandela's life.

"If we focus on what Africa as a continent can do together and what these countries can do when they're unified, as opposed to when they're divided by tribe or race or religion, then Africa's rise will continue," Obama said.

White House officials said Obama would hold a "town hall" on Saturday with youth leaders in Soweto, the Johannesburg township known for 1976 student protests against apartheid.

He will discuss a new exchange programme for African students with US colleges and universities. The event will include youth in Uganda, Nigeria and Kenya participating through video conference, and will be televised in those countries, White House officials said. Obama's only previous visit to the African continent was a one-day stopover in Ghana at the beginning of his first term.

While acknowledging that Obama has not spent as much time in Africa as people hoped, the White House is eager to highlight what it has done, in part to end unflattering comparisons to accomplishments of predecessors George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

"Given the budget constraints, for us to try to get the kind of money that President Bush was able to get out of the Republican House for massively scaled new foreign aid programmes is very difficult," Obama said. Obama and the Republican-controlled House of Representatives have fought bitterly over government spending. US foreign aid is a perennial target for lawmakers who want more budget cuts.

Reuters report that before departing Senegal, Obama met farmers and local entrepreneurs to discuss new technologies helping to raise agricultural output in West Africa, one of the world's most under-developed and drought-prone regions. The technical aid in the US government's "Feed the Future" programme leverages money from the private sector and aid groups to help small farmers.

Obama said he would announce an initiative to use the same strategies for the power sector, a model he said makes the most of the shrinking US foreign aid budget. "I think everything we do is designed to make sure that Africa is not viewed as a dependent, as a charity case, but is instead viewed as a partner," he said.

Obama acknowledged that China, Brazil, India and other countries have been increasingly active in Africa and said the United States risks being left behind. But he said the US approach to development is preferred by African leaders.

"They recognise that China's primary interest is being able to obtain access for natural resources in Africa to feed the manufacturers in export-driven policies of the Chinese economy," Obama said. he stated that "Oftentimes that leaves Africa as simply an exporter of raw goods" as opposed to creating long-term jobs.

Nuclear talks between Russia and the United States

                              

                              
The United States is to send a top arms-control official to Moscow to convince the Russians to continue to decommission deployed nuclear weapons by saying it would save the two countries $8 billion a year, Kommersant reported citing an undisclosed source.

The initiative will target weapon categories not covered by the Russian-US agreement, which is called New START. The treaty pretends that strategic bombers can carry only a single warhead instead of up to 20 and does not consider weapons held in storage and smaller-scale tactical weapons.

A more drastic reduction would bring down the number of warhead by another third to some 1,000 to 1,100, according to the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit journalistic organization. The number would be sufficient to maintain US’ deterrence capability and would not require structural changes to nuclear forces, the consensus in Washington says.

White House officials reportedly believe that the approaching limit of 1,550 strategic deployed nuclear weapons, agreed upon in the 2010 New START agreement, could be brought down to 1,000 without compromising nuclear deterrence between the two powers.

Pyotr Topychkanov, a nonproliferation programme coordinator at the Carnegie Moscow Center, said that "in terms of its defence strategy, the US is shifting its focus toward conventional [non-nuclear] weapons, while Russia remains more nuclear-dependent. Therefore, it is easier for the US to talk about further nuclear arms reductions."

"Russia cannot keep up with the pace of these [conventional-weapon] developments and thus still heavily relies on its nuclear might," he added. "In contrast with the US, Russia also finds itself in a close vicinity of many other nuclear-weapon states, such as India, Pakistan and North Korea."

Obama and the Second Term Swearing-in Ceremony

Providence does bring a kind of symmetrical and coincidental occurrences which makes analysis sometimes obfuscating and sometimes interesting. As Israel prepares for election on January 22, Obama's inauguration comes up for his final lapse in the White House on January 20 which makes the affairs interesting.

The expected population is around 800,000, a sharp drop in the 1.8 million audience his first term swearing-in ceremony in office commanded in 2009. This is expected as the president has had more tough time battling established 'popular culture' with his skin pigmentation being a sort of impediment.

From Obamacare to Israel to fiscalcliff to gun control and recently back to Israel, the President has been seen by many whites as an 'imported leader' but his leadership sagacity has made him held his ground and come out hale and hearty.

On Sunday, following a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, Obama will be sworn in officially at the White House at 1655 GMT, meeting the constitutional requirement that he do so on January 20. That portion will be private - except for a media presence - with a small audience of mostly family members.

Both times he will be sworn in by Supreme Court Justice John Roberts who, in 2009 after flubbing the oath the first time, administered it to Obama again in the White House the day after his inauguration. The president's two recitations this year will be the third and fourth time he has taken the oath.

Obama's speech will focus on the American values, his imbroglio with the Republican-led house on issues like fiscalcliff, immigration laws, gun control and his major agendas in his second term. He will also bear in mind the changes in the Middle East, the United States' commitment to Israel and America's 'international responsibilities'.