Obama's Continued Disdain for Africa

COUNTERPOINT

By Raynard Jackson

In June of 2013 Obama tried to lecture Senegalese President, Macky Sall in front of his own people on accepting homosexuality in his country.  Before his trip to Africa, Obama was sternly warned by many, “do not talk about homosexuality in Africa.”


But as is his habit, Obama never misses an opportunity to lecture and talk down to Blacks in the U.S. and Africans abroad.  To his credit, President Sall quickly chastised Obama with these words, “We are still not ready to decriminalize homosexuality…This does not mean we are homophobic.”


In 2014, during the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, Obama again lectured Africa on the need to accept homosexuality and under his administration they even took it a step further.

For the first time in the history of the U.S., Hillary Clinton made a country’s promotion of homosexuality a criteria in whether the U.S. would continue to extend foreign aid.  This was a tectonic shift in our foreign policy and should have no place in our relations with other sovereign countries.


I am very proud that almost without exception African leaders have told America and the rest of the Western world to “keep your money and foreign aid, we will not sacrifice our culture and values for your help.”


So, with this as a backdrop, I was more than stunned at the blatant disrespect Obama and his administration continues to show towards Africa; specifically in the case of South Sudan.

Two weeks ago I was invited by the Embassy of South Sudan to join them in their celebration of their 4^th birthday as an independent nation.  The creation of South Sudan was one of former president George W. Bush’s lasting foreign policy achievements.


The event was a nice, festive affair with diplomats from throughout the continent of Africa in attendance.  There was a very short program with one of the speakers being Lucy Tamlyn, U.S. State Department, Office of Special Envoy for Sudan & South Sudan.  Her remarks offended everyone in the room. She said in part, “The four year anniversary of the founding of the Republic of South Sudan should indeed be a day of celebration but when we think of the difficult situation that the people of South Sudan are experiencing on the ground it’s hard to be in a celebratory mood.  Over the last few weeks, we have heard reports of abuses against civilians, including against innocent women and children.  Numerous reports have confirmed that all parties to the conflict have committed offensive military actions in violations of international humanitarian law.  With more than 2.2 million displaced and 4.6 million at risk of life threatening hunger.  It is clear that the hopes and the aspirations of the South Sudanese people are not being met.  As the government begins its extended mandate today, we call on all parties to the conflict to forge a lasting peace and work to put in place a government of national unity.”


A government of national unity?  Are you kidding me?  The last time I checked, Salva Kiir Mayardit was and is the duly elected president of South Sudan.  If and when the people of South Sudan want to change their nation’s leadership, they will do so during the next election.  It’s called democracy!


There are many legitimate areas for the U.S. to criticize the government of South Sudan.  But the celebration of their independence was not the time nor the place for such a discussion.

As an American with extensive relations and travels in Africa, including South Sudan, I was deeply embarrassed by my country.  We Blacks in the U.S. have come to expect this type of condescension  from the Obama administration when speaking to Blacks; but to display this level of arrogance to a sovereign nation is beyond the pale.


Obama would have never sent a representative to an event hosted by the government of Saudi Arabia and had them criticize the government for their treatment of women and their aggressive support for terrorism.  Obama doesn’t have the guts to do that.


But because he has so little regard for South Sudan, he doesn’t hesitate to call for the weakening of a democratically elected head of state by mandating he put a political foe in his government (Riek Machar).


How does Obama reconcile his claim to want to promote democracy around the world, with the interfering in the internal affairs of a nation?


I wish Obama would show the same amount of bravado when it came to getting our hostages out of Iran; or when it comes to challenging Putin’s aggression in Crimea; or when it comes to China manipulating their currency and hacking into our computer networks.


He doesn’t have the stomach to do this.  So, he decided to make himself feel like a man by attacking and embarrassing a developing nation that he knows can’t really fight back diplomatically.


This is not just about South Sudan; but rather the entire continent of Africa.  Africa has many friends and supporters in the U.S., but unfortunately they are rarely sought out for help in situations like these.

Raynard Jackson & Associates, LLC is an internationally recognized political consulting, government affairs, and PR firm based in Washington, DC.  Jackson is an internationally recognized radio talk show host and TV commentator.  He has coined the phrase “straticist.”  As a straticist, he has merged strategic planning with public relations.  Visit his website at: www.raynardjackson.com.

Sonala on Buhari's US Visit

Culled from The Guardian

NIGERIA’s President Muhammadu Buhari began his mission of change in earnest last week by appointing new chiefs for the security services. It was not the appointments in themselves that were significant, but this statement he made to them:

“All of you…were chosen on merit. Your records gave you the job. Save for the new Chief of Army Staff whom I briefly met at his Command at the Multi-National Joint Task Force, in Chad, I don’t know any of you. Your records recommended you.”

In Nigeria, this is new. The normal practice has usually been to appoint by party members, hangers-on, and the recommendations of the First Lady and her friends. Sinners became saints. Worms became lions. Offices decayed. Institutions collapsed.

Take Buhari’s predecessor, for instance. Mr. Goodluck Jonathan was virtually appointed to the Vice-Presidency in the first place in 2007 by the outgoing leader, Olusegun Obasanjo. When President Umaru Yar’Adua died in 2010, Mr. Jonathan became President. Few people could have been more ill-suited in temperament, motivation, ambition or confidence than Jonathan was, and his five years in charge demonstrated that point.

When Buhari arrives in Washington DC today on his first official visit to the United States, he will travel on a different firmament of credibility and hope. The United States, which never hid its disdain for the Jonathan kleptocracy masquerading as theatre, will be throwing at his feet a giant red carpet as it tries to encourage genuine democratic reforms and institutions.
Buhari should walk that carpet with pride, as long as Nigeria remembers that the United States is no Santa Claus. For many years, the US worked with the playbook, which said Nigeria would disintegrate in 2015. It hasn’t; which means that almost suddenly, Nigeria has regained the status of a vast market that was thought to have been lost.

In other words, because the dog in the hunt hunts for the dog, this visit is not only about what the US can do for Nigeria, but also what Nigeria can do for the US. The US can be a strong ally in Nigeria’s economic rebirth, just as a strong, vibrant Nigeria can be a major factor in the battle against the advance of sophisticated terrorist groups in Africa, and become an even bigger trading partner.

There are strong expectations in Nigeria that the US will come into the battle against Boko Haram, but few people know that in all of Africa, the US reluctantly has only 42 uniformed personnel in peacekeeping missions. The corruption and incoherence of the Jonathan government complicated matters in the past few years, leaving ill-digested and abandoned policy initiatives all over the place, but to obtain US engagement in the Boko Haram offensive is a significant policy shift Buhari should aim for.

The US can also help Nigeria’s efforts to protect her territorial waters, and halt the menace of small arms and light weapons.

Of course, it can assist in the war against corruption, and Nigeria should begin from Washington DC and its environs, particularly the State of Maryland, where a lot of prominent former Nigerian officials, including diplomats, have invested their loot in expensive and expansive real estate.
Those properties are not difficult to recover, but Nigeria has never demonstrated the will. In the case of Dipreye Alamieyeseigha, Mr. Jonathan’s former boss and friend whom he would later grant state pardon following his conviction on corruption charges, the US did invite Nigeria to claim a $700,000 Maryland mansion and a Massachusetts investment account worth about $400,000 that were recovered from the former governor. Jonathan refused, true to his faith that stealing is not corruption, and the US kept the items. This is a good time for Nigeria to file a new claim, and to work with the US to recover similar Nigerian loot that litter the length and breadth of the country.

It is also a good time to commence a review of Nigeria’s diplomatic objectives in the US, which has for too long been nebulous at best, with Nigerian diplomats spending far more time worshiping Abuja than actually representing Nigeria in the country. Nigerian diplomacy in the US can achieve so much more if it saw itself as serving Nigeria rather than Aso Rock, and focused on channeling Nigeria’s considerable resources of education and energy and investment into Nigeria.

In this connection, one of Buhari’s key objectives should be a strong policy to encourage Nigerian professionals in specific sectors, such as medicine and education, to boost Nigeria’s capacity. The US can help with this, and it is a far cheaper, more productive, and more sustainable response to the challenge in those sectors than the so-called aid that repeatedly vanishes. As the security and electricity situations improve, local tourism will also enjoy a major boost.

Speaking of tourism, the US is a big beneficiary of Nigerian medical tourism; Nigeria gains nothing because our tourism policy is a hoax. There is no time better than the present to rectify this imbalance.

Nigeria should also reach out to her excellent pool of second-generation citizens that is being lost to the US because of the last 50 years of terrible policies.

While in Washington DC, it is a good idea for Buhari to meet with Nigerians in the country and hear their concerns directly. This is a powerful citizens’ group, but it has no voting rights, an idea that was roundly suppressed by the Jonathan government despite the many promises of the president himself. Of equal importance, the Buhari government can find substantial financing for infrastructure among the army of Nigerians abroad if it comes up with an appropriate policy. This has helped some other countries in the past.

While in Washington DC, Buhari must educate himself about the assortment of seedy but exorbitant public relations consultancies granted to layers of undefined Americans by the last administration that his government is probably still paying for. In one widely-known case, that consultancy company wrote one newspaper article for President Jonathan; it had a basic contract of $1.2million!

While in Washington, Buhari should ask about the $480 million forfeited Abacha funds about which Nigeria’s Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project wrote to the U.S. Department of Justice last March. Last year, a U.S. District Judge in the US capital had ordered that the funds, which were frozen by the department, be forfeited to U.S. control. That department had also frozen more than $458 million in corruption proceeds hidden by Abacha and his conspirators in different countries.

Buhari may also wish to be reminded that also last March, it was announced that a further $380 million of the Abacha loot was to be returned by Switzerland to Nigeria, meaning that the Swiss alone, by that sum, would have returned over $1billion to Nigeria.

In June 2014, Liechtenstein returned $227m to Nigeria, following which President Jonathan set up a committee of cabinet Ministers to determine how it would be used.
 
Many of these answers, Buhari would be pleased to know, are right there in Washington DC this week, and he can return to Abuja a very wealthy and proud leader in many ways.