Just Musing
Emmanuel Udogu
I have been wondering about the purpose of the beautiful “political romance” between presidents Tinubu and Macron for some time. We saw (koro koro) how often Tinubu visited France, and how they hugged and smiled at each other. Like many Nigerians, I was astonished that his visits were not to the United Kingdom.
Tinubu’s rapid action against the military coup in the Republic of Benin suggests why Tinubu and Macron have been enjoying their close friendship. If you will recall, France and other powers brought pressure to bear on Tinubu, in a transactional arrangement of sorts with foreign powers, while he was the chair of ECOWAS to quell the coup in the Republic of Niger. Due to resistance from Nigerians, Tinubu and ECOWAS did not send troops to Niger, to the dismay of these foreign powers and their interests in Niger. In effect, to compensate for the failure of ECOWAS to act in Niger, Tinubu had to intervene swiftly in the Benin Republic–before consulting the Nigerian Senate and ECOWAS. Was Tinubu’s action in Benin appropriate or inappropriate?
Please let me share this brilliant analysis of a political scientist on this matter with you. In my view, it exemplifies why few political scientists are invited by Nigerian and African governments to proffer solutions to political problems. They are just “too” honest, and politicians loathe honesty because it works against their egocentric interests. That notwithstanding, I say kudos to Nigerian political scientists, and other social scientists, for your superb recommendations and solutions to Nigerian and African political, social, and economic quagmires!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-bZ4ZYex9U
Ike Udogu
Cornelius Hamelberg
Don Udogu,
Many thanks for your timely musing, I suppose in the same way that Baba Patrice Guillaume Athanase Talon must still be thanking profusely, first and foremost the Almighty, then for the foreign interference of his beloved post-colonial patron saint Emmanuel Macron, and last but not least, Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for his timely military intervention without which, as everybody knows all too well, figuratively speaking, by now Talon’s ass would have been grass. Or toast.
You wonder why the rumour mill says that President Tinubu has been receiving his medical attention in Paris, unlike his predecessor President Buhari who seems to have had more faith & trust in the British Medical Establishment at the Ministry of Overseas Development in London. If President Tinubu had been an ordinary Joe making frequent visits to Paris I would have thought, “Cherchez la femme” but no, he is an honest Joe and the First Lady - a Christian - cannot complain that she is “unequally yoked”
In both cases these necessary medical sojourns in foreign lands underscores the crying need for developing domestic medical facilities to at least Nigerian Presidential standards, without which I’d say that some aspects of state security are already, hopelessly compromised.
It gives some political scientists and historians the shivers to note that Ahmed Sékou Touré died on the operating table in the US
What’s in a name?
When an African president is named Guillaume and not William ( like “William the Conqueror”, ”William Shakespeare”,” William Wordsworth", William Faulkner”) you know for sure that such a one was probably born on the French West African plantation and baptised under the French language and French missionary auspices, at a time when under French assimilation educational policies at a still young and impressionable age they were being taught in their history classes in those colonial school, to venerate their colonial masters and to recite by rote, “Nos ancêtres les Gaulois” ( “Our ancestors were Gauls”)
The careful academic post-mortems by Dr Kunle Fagbemi and with hindsight, some of the sanctimonious legal twaddle about the procedures that should have preceded Beloved Tinubu’s military intervention in tune with helping a friend , this time a neighbour in need, are a little too late and at this stage secondary when we consider that time was of the essence in the decision-making situation in which Nigeria's democratically elected head of state found himself. In my view, the legal twaddle, all that crying over spilt milk and what the pundits believe should have preceded the decision, namely ratification of such a decision by the Nigerian Senate, is not very different from the poor bloke in his death bed being formally asked some theological cum philosophical inanities such as “ Do you believe in the Holy Trinity?” or “Do you believe that Jesus died for your sins?” and expecting that his answering in the affirmative would save the poor bloke just before he gives up the ghost.
That too not materially very different either from scolding Donald J. Trump for “obliterating” Iran’s underground nuclear research facilities without obtaining prior permission to do so, from Congress, as is perhaps constitutionally mandated for such a far reaching action to be taken ( bombing another country’s nuclear facilities to smithereens, without even a thought about the possible radioactive fallout
With regard to the aborted coup in Benin, the question is, if an emergency meeting had been summoned within minutes, would they have given the go-ahead in time, - and if by the time the Nigerian Military was given the go ahead the latest Benin coup d’etat was already a fait accompli , then would Nigeria's Senate have voted to go to war against the coup makers to re-install Talon?
Happily or unhappily, there's not much clarity in the matter and the timely decision that President Tinubu made under such emergency circumstances cannot be unmade nor can the effects of that decision be undone, and in addition to that, the effects of that decision will continue forever….
Further conjectures : They say that “Truth is the first casualty of war” and right now the ignoramuses among us don’t know what to believe because of these conflicting reports :
Why Burkina Faso INTERCEPTED Nigeria Military Aircraft & ARRESTED 11 NIGERIAN Soldiers