As the leaders of G-7 asked for a wish list, they, without saying it, have asked to be included on the list the President’s guarantee that incidence of human rights abuses would not be tolerated under his administration. Unchecked abuses even in the theatre of war were one of the reasons most western nations had been cold about rendering some form of assistance under the immediate past administration.
Now that they have shown renewed interest, Buhari should ensure that their hope of a better time on human rights matters is not dashed.
First, I will like President Muhammadu Buhari to substitute one of the words he uses in his public address for another. He uses the word “help” whenever he refers to Western powers assisting Nigeria to overcome insurgency in the North-East zone of the country. Several times, he had used the word in the same vein before his inauguration.
First, I will like President Muhammadu Buhari to substitute one of the words he uses in his public address for another. He uses the word “help” whenever he refers to Western powers assisting Nigeria to overcome insurgency in the North-East zone of the country. Several times, he had used the word in the same vein before his inauguration.
He also did while addressing the press at the end of the meeting of the Lake Chad Basin Development Commission in Abuja days after he returned from the G-7 Summit in Germany. “All of them from President Barack Obama are willing to help us”, he had said, referring to the G-7 member states. For the sake of the pride of this nation, and for the fact that our boys do the fighting while outsiders support, I prefer that the President uses words such as “assist”, “partner”, or “collaborate”. They are better, diplomatically speaking.
Now, to the matter at hand. The other week, the President attended a summit in Germany, organised by the group of seven most industrialised democracies otherwise called the G-7. Canada, France, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Germany were in attendance. Buhari was one of the few African leaders invited. Russia was a member of the club too (making it G-
, but Vladimir Putin was not invited.
Now, to the matter at hand. The other week, the President attended a summit in Germany, organised by the group of seven most industrialised democracies otherwise called the G-7. Canada, France, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Germany were in attendance. Buhari was one of the few African leaders invited. Russia was a member of the club too (making it G-
, but Vladimir Putin was not invited.Everyone knew it was because of the renewed clash between the West and Russia over Ukraine. Interesting comments had been made about the wisdom of not engaging the Russians on that occasion. Some reasons given were factual, others were amusing.
One was that Russia was not behaving responsibly on the international stage, annexing the territory of Ukraine as it did. It was also said that Russia didn’t deserve to belong to the club in the first place because it was not a liberal democracy in that strict sense of the word and, in any case, there are other platforms where Russia could sit at the same table with the G-7 members. The accused didn’t fail to respond, of course. It didn’t really need the G-7, Russia had said, and the club wasn’t as important as the G-20 anyway, it had added.
Click here to read more
Source:: TalkAfrica
We Love Comments