Whispering Drums With Maigani
by Musa Ibrahim
Tremors At Foreign Ministry
Since individuals cannot live and operate in isolation, it goes without saying that nations too cannot live and work in isolation. Besides, the most fundamental domestic problems of any nation relating to security, the economy, even national identity and unity cannot be tackled only domestically. All these feature prominently in the external environ- ment. Foreign policy then becomes a nation's determination of its external environment.
Analysts of Nigeria's foreign policy since independence often pigeon-hole their analysis into four neat categories. These are 1960-65; 1966-69; 1970-75; and post-1975 (at least till October 1979 when the second Republic came into being on 1 October). This periodization has often offered a useful starting point within which Nigeria's external relations might be examined. But out of all these periods only the post-July 1975 era stand out (in July 1975, General Yakubu Gowon was overthrown in a military coup d'etat and General Murtala Muhammed took over as Head of state).
In the words of Murtala's Federal Commissioner for External Affairs, colonel, now rtd Major-General Joseph Garba: "Nigeria's foreign policy was in the main sound, but I think it was in the application that left a lot to be desired The former regime (Gowon) overplayed the game. Now, this tended to make us react to developments, thus negating the need for a firm stand on most major issues... and so in fact because of that we did not have a policy at all...
Perhaps, the only thing wrong with the Gowon era was in his pursuit of foreign policy objectives through a style of "personal diplomacy". Again, General Garba was quick to point this out. Said he: "Nigeria's external image was based on two things - the former Head of State himself, because he toured extensively and oil". Even though there is nothing necessarily wrong in Gowon's type of personal diplomacy, Gowon's problem was that in a number of instances, his objectives lacked coherence, and tended to be too obscure to be readily accepted.
To add to his headaches, Gowon relied exclusively, one would say stubbornly, on so-called professionals and experts on the field. More often than not, these were top civil servants and permanent secretaries that have grown bald and are barren of any new ideas and policies. In the process, decisions by career diplomats were often ignored.
When Murtala came, he set up a committee made up of persons drawn from the armed forces, the universities and the career diplomats from the Ministry of External Affairs, to review the whole basis of Nigerian foreign policy and to formulate new guidelines. Most import- antly, there was a complete overhaul of the foreign ministry itself. In the end, only the 'best' and the devout and committed survived the purges and vaporizations that swept across the ministry. But the venture was worthwhile because it culminated into a dynamic and fearless era of foreign relations Nigeria has ever known.
Three Heads of State after (Obasanjo, Shagari, Buhari), President Ibrahim Babangida seemed poised to repeat what Murtala did before him. Apart from the initial blunder of appointing Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, a technocrat, as Nigeria's Foreign Affairs minister, the President's inaugural speech on foreign policy is unmistakably Murtala's. Accusing the Buhari government of inconsistencies and incoherence and lacking in clarity as far as foreign policies are concerned, Babangida promised to "effect a realignment of our external relations", and stressed that Nigeria's membership in various multilateral institutions and intergovernmental organizations shall be made more practical and meaningful.
Most importantly again, a complete overhaul of the Ministry of External Affairs is on the way. It is this decision to curb the staff in the ministry that is causing ripples and consternation among the staff in Lagos and in the country's missions abroad (diplomatic immunity notwithstanding). The reason for this is not far-fetched.
Over the years, the Ministry of External Affairs has been treated by previous governments as a sacrosanct institution- something that is God-ordained and thus should not be tampered with. The result has always been a lack-lustre diplomacy with the behaviour of the diplomats leaving much to be desired. In London, Washington, New York, Geneva and in all Nigeria's missions abroad, Nigeria's diplomats are viewed as the most notorious, unrefined, rude and the most undiplomatic
As soon as an official is posted from Lagos, the first thing he begins to harbour is what make of car and what electronic gadgets he will be able to acquire and ship back to Nigeria. The paramount role of representation of the country's national interest is relegated to the background. Worse still is the continued services of old and senile career diplomats. It is only in the Ministry of External Affairs that one finds officials who have been on salary Grade Level 17 for more than ten years. This grade level by the way, is the highest a civil servant can attain.
These category of officers have used up all their grey cells and are in no position to come out with new and intelligent ideas. So if the Ministry of External Affairs is actually to be put on a correct footing, these officers must go because in a modern, fast growing Nigeria, they have already outlived their usefulness. There is nothing more they can offer the country. Often, when there is retrenchment in Nigeria, it is the small and the lowly that are affected and made scapegoats. This must not happen in this particular case.
A year after the mantle of leadership had passed from the military to the civil- ians, Joseph Garba confided in a friend and said that he had no money. Yes, com- pared to his colleagues I tend to believe the ex-Foreign Affairs minister. The trappings of political power and diplo- matic immunity aside, a foreign minister is the least likely government official to engage in dubious monetary deals. More often than not, there are no contracts to be awarded and no ten per cent to be collec- ted. I hope Professor Bolaji Akinyemi is aware of this.
It appears a major problem the Baban- gida regime is likely going to face sooner or later is its absolute confidence on Nigeria's intellectuals. happens, I would like advisers of the Before this regime to take note of one thing. Nothing about Murtala was spectacular except his successes. Almost nothing that he did was great or impossible but he did something. He made the lionized elite of the high sounding verbose, so enamoured of "dogon turanci", of cosmic theories and academic credentials retreat into a sullen silence. That was the key to his successes.
