BUHARI: AS A SYMBOL FOR NIGERIA FOREIGN POLICY IN A GLOBAL AGE - Umar Yahaya

Foreign policy-making involves the establishment of goals and the selection of means to achieve them.

The reasons I am optimistic in Nigeria project, that one day it would be a great nation and lead in the comity of nation, are because of our desire and vision to produce a team-worker, good-listener, courageous and charismatic leader, who would do his best in making Nigeria a great nation and be acceptable globally, not as perfectly as our so-called intellectual thinkers, who were not supporting Mr. President to achieve his vision statement of taking the country to prosperous and economic growths and development, like the French intellectual movements of 1715-1789 who supported their country leaders in proffering a solution to their chaotic problems.

Throughout my reading and understanding of world nations' history, there is no single nation that developed overnight.

The advancement of any nation centred around the sacrifice and struggle made by its leaders, its people and countrymen who paid the supreme price for its stability and development. If a country had a strongminded leader like (Buhari) who would galvanize and rally people's support for all his policies, plans and programme, articulate their interest and make it reality, the country will achieve a progress and development, both in economic, social, political, cultural and technological aspects.

Moreover, as a believer of an adage that “wherever Nigeria goes, Africa goes” and at whatever times, if Nigerians unite and believe in their destiny as one nation that bound in freedom and peace, they would lead not only Africa but the world itself. For instance, the advancement of Information and Communication Technology devices has brought the world closer to us, whatever happens in New York, London, Moscow, Berlin, Paris, Beijing, Dubai, and our dear Capital city, Abuja it would be seen and heard by people, as off today the information is now available at our hand, by these technogicals device, just by clicking we would know what is trending in this 21st century global village.

Let me come into the real gist. Before his election as President, Nigeria was seen as a state that lack responsive political leadership, there is poor Institutionalization of democratic governance and endemic institutional corruption.

Nigerians lack the courage to compete with other nationals for position in international level particularly in International governmental and non-governmental organizations (IGOs, INGOs) and this was because of our attitudes towards corruption. Since his first Inauguration as President on 29 May, 2015 the image of Nigeria and Nigerians change in global stage, this comes as a result of his orientation and stance against corruption and how government and public servant should behave and works only for the interest of the populace.

His attitude gave the international community an affirmative impression about the President of Nigeria to invite him to the G7 meeting in Berlin, Germany, in which Barrack Obama the then President of USA requested to be seated close to the Nigerian leader (Buhari).

In this summit however, Buhari, represents his country well, and it was from there, that the global compliments starts to pour on the Nigerian Leader and his country, and that a new dawn for quality leadership and governance emerged in the largest Sub-Saharan African Country.

As you know, in 2016 in London, at the Commonwealth Summit of Head of Governments: "On How to Tackle Corruption". Buhari was the only African leader invited to speak in the summit, on behalf of the African continent. Before the summit, the then British Prime Minister, David Cameroon was caught in a camera calling Nigeria a ‘fantastically corrupt’ nation, these are the kind of the belief the world leaders have against Nigeria State then. But, after the comments, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby intervened to said that “But this particular president (Buhari) is not corrupt he’s trying very hard.”

However, after the summit, the outing of Nigerian leader was rated as the best ever from the African nation, that Africa has a new leader in Buhari.

The African Union (AU) on its annual general meeting of Head of Governments in 2018, appoint Buhari as the champion of their crusade against corruption in Africa, following his commitment to root out corruption in Nigeria. This is an achievement and trust not only to his administration, but to the people of Nigeria.

Furthermore, in Equatorial Guinea President, Teodore Obiang Nguema Mbasogo conferred Buhari with the country's highest honour of “Gran Collar De La Orden De La Independencia” (Grand Collar of the Order of the Independence) while, thanking the people of Equatorial Guinea, Buhari said that “On behalf of my country Nigeria, and the people, I will like to express profound gratitude for the honour given to me and my people.

The reality of the situation now is that there had never been a time in history for greater neighborliness, for security and economic stability than now”.

In addition, the first Nigerian to be appointed in the largest International Governmental Organizations (UN), in Buhari's administration is Amina J. Mohammed, as a Deputy Secretary General by the UN scribe Antonio Gutteres, because of the experiences she demonstrated as a Minister of Environment by setting measures to clean-up Ogoni-land, and the efforts to protect the natural environment and conserve resources for sustainable development.

In the 72nd United Nation General Assembly session, Buhari spoke on behalf of African Continent, that the most pressing threat to International peace and security today is the accelerated nuclear weapons development programme by North Korea and he further said that "we don’t want a new World War III, because of our past experience, as Hiroshima and Nagasaki painfully remind us, if we fail, the catastrophic and devastating human loss and environmental degradation cannot be imagined" what the world needs now is peace and development rather than war and destruction.

The Nigerian leader proposed a solution on how to avert the war, where he stated that “to avert conflict and war between the North Korea and United State of America (USA), the UN should use a process of political solution to negotiate through peaceful resolution of the crisis by sending a high-level powerful delegates to the North Korea and USA for the world to live in peace”. After the speech, the topmost media-houses in the world (BBC, CNN, Aljazeera, etc.) rated his speech as one of the best ever from the African continent, that Buhari spoke as African leader rather than Nigeria President.

Another Nigerian appointed to the post of Secretary General of Organization of Petroleum and Exporting countries (OPEC) is Dr. Muhammad Sunusi Barkindo, an accomplished oil technocrat and veteran of OPEC, he the group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) between 2009 – 2010.

The organization re-appointed him for the second three-year term because of the experienced he demonstrated in his first three year term.

Furthermore, another Nigerian elected in UN, is Muhammad Tijjani Bande, a Professor of Political Science and Nigeria's Permanent Representatives to United Nation as President UN General Assembly.

This was the prime achievement of his (Buhari) administration. Because, it was the tenure of African countries to produce the President of UN General Assembly, but none from the Africa stood or field a candidate for the position, he was elected unopposed in the apex body of world countries.

This shows that African countries believe in Nigerian leadership by speaking with one voice. Bande chaired the 74th UNGA session with the vision of promoting international peace and security, in particular conflict prevention, strengthening global action to tackle climate change, accentuating inclusion, human rights, and the empowerment of youth and women respectively, promoting partnership for advancing the achievements of the SDGs, in particular Goals 1, 2 and 4 on poverty eradication, zero hunger and quality education.

Tijjani Bande was the second Nigerian to be elected to lead the UN General Assembly since its creation in 1945.

The Liberian President George Weah recently invited Buhari to his country 172nd Independence Anniversary and honoured Buhari with the highest honour in the country “Most Venerable Order of the Knighthood of the Pioneers of the Knight Grand Cordon”.

In his acceptance speech he said that “he accepted it on behalf of Nigerians and as a tribute to all our countrymen who paid the supreme price in aid of Liberia’s unity and stability. He continued to say that this gesture can only strengthen my resolve to rededicate myself to the service of my country, and work for the prosperity of our people in the sub-region”.

Buhari was invited several times and at different fora by World leaders, where he presents policy preferences that will benefit Nigeria and its people through the signing of bilateral or multilateral agreements, and with the belief that Nigeria is in good hands to invest and do business, from USA, Russia, China, UK, India, Germany, France, Qatar, Dubai, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, etc. In a nutshell, all the above mentioned achievements were clear indication that the Buhari administration or particularly Buhari himself is the symbol of Nigerian foreign policy in a global age.