Nigeria: End Of African-Centered Foreign Policy

Swans Commentary ^ | Monday, September 12, 2011 | Femi Akomolafe

[SunkenCiv]

It is difficult to understand the logic that informed Nigeria's decision to announce their recognition of the NATO-backed rebels in Libya. Although the leaders in Abuja said that it was taken in the interests of the country, it is very difficult to see how this ill-timed, ill-advised, wrong-headed and shortsighted decision could enhance the interests of a country that likes to see itself as Africa's Numero Uno. Nigeria's hasty decision looks all the more foolish when the country's main rival, South Africa, is wisely towing the position taken by the continent's main body, the African Union.

It is sad to see the country whose past leaders have toiled to build solid Pan-African credentials reduced to a mere errand-boy of Western imperialism. A country that has worked tirelessly over the years to build solid Non-Aligned, Africa-centric foreign policy credentials, is today the tool the imperialists use to advance their interests in Africa. Nigeria spearheaded the French designs on La Cote d'Ivoire and today, the country has firmly burnished her credential as an imperialist puppet state by extending recognition to the rebels in Libya.

The decision becomes more incongruous because it was taken when the airwaves are saturated with reports of the killings of Nigerians and other black Africans by the rebels who believe that every black face is a Ghadaffi mercenary in a country where a third of the population is black! Are we to believe that the leaders in Abuja were sleeping when CNN and other Western media showed the rebels killing and maltreating Nigerians and other black Africans?

[SunkenCiv]

A map of the Sahel region showing where Al Qaeda operates (AFP/Graphic)

[SunkenCiv]

Nigeria is just fulfilling its role as the Muzzie despotate that it is.

[decimon]

...reports of the killings of Nigerians and other black Africans by the rebels who believe that every black face is a Ghadaffi mercenary...

I don't think the Libyan rebels care if the blacks are mercenaries. I think they kill them because they're black.

[SunkenCiv]

Don’t worry, Amnesty int’l has called on the NTC to stop such abuses. /s

[AfricanChristian]

Don’t read too much into the article.

The wider point is that Black Africans don’t like Arabs and vice versa. Gaddafi for all his faults was not as racist as the typical Arab, this is why he is liked through out Sub-Saharan Africa.

However, Nigeria has never liked Gaddafi. Gaddafi’s was behind the major crises in West Africa (Sierra Leone and Liberia). Nigeria expended considerable blood and treasure (lost a lot of soldiers) stabilising those two nations.