Geoffrey Onyeama says Nigerians should be looking at themselves and their educational system and how to improve it so that Nigerian students are worth the certificates that they have.
As the curtains are drawn on the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, PREMIUM TIMES's Chiamaka Okafor had an exclusive interview with Nigeria's longest-serving Minister of Foreign Affairs since 1975. Geoffrey Onyeama talks about his time as minister, his achievements and handover notes. He also talks about the ongoing crisis in Sudan, coups in West Africa and the controversial English proficiency tests Nigerians take despite English being their country's official language, amongst other issues.
Mr Onyeama was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs by Mr Buhari in 2015 and reappointed in 2019. Before the appointment, he worked at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) from 1985 to 2014, serving as the Deputy Director General of the organisation from 2009 to 2014.
Excerpt:
PT: Is Nigeria concerned about the fallouts of the crisis in Sudan?
Mr Onyeama: Yes. We have to be absolutely very concerned because we saw that the crisis in Libya led to the insecurity we have in this country, and clearly, what is going on in Sudan can exacerbate that. So we have to be vigilant, on our toes, and yes, absolutely take whatever preemptive measures we can take to ensure that we do not have a crisis worsened by what is happening in Sudan.
PT: There have been not-so-quiet comments around the Wagner Group's involvement in the crisis and how it is another proxy war between Russia and the West in Africa. What is Nigeria's position?
Mr Onyeama: You say we know that Wagner is involved in Sudan? We do not know that officially. We have not been presented with any concrete evidence or hard facts that they are there. I am not saying they are not, but we do not have any proof.
But, yes, they are operating in countries nearby, and you are right that one of the concerns that we all have is that Africa should not be, again, a battleground for another Cold War. So, this is something we are very concerned about to ensure that it does not happen. And how are we doing that? Obviously, through the ECOWAS. Wagner started getting involved in Mali, and it seems in Guinea Bissau, so ECOWAS is very concerned about that and trying as a collective to address that. But clearly, our position is that we do not want the Cold War repeated on African territory again. So we would certainly act.
You talked about Nigeria as a big brother, but we also are very reticent about acting unilaterally on African conflicts. We believe in using the existing multilateral structures - ECOWAS for West Africa, the African Union for the rest of Africa, and even the Intergovernmental Authority for Development (IGAD), which groups the East African and North Horn of Africa.
There is an IGAD Plus, and Nigeria is that plus. Although we are not part of IGAD, we are part of the IGAD+ because of our, maybe, Big Brother role, so we will use all those fora, all those multilateral frameworks to hopefully be able to stop the move towards Africa becoming another battleground for East-West conflict.
PT: There is the question about BRICS and the non-alignment movement in Africa. How BRICS is disrupting or affecting the global political landscape. What does this mean for the continent in terms of non-alignment?
Mr Onyeama: I do not think BRICS is in any way really disrupting global politics, as it were, you know. Because they are disparate countries, if you look at the countries of BRICS, you will not see any East-West alignment possibilities.
I am not sure that any other country, even the Western countries, necessarily sees it as representing anything more than an economic grouping. These naval manoeuvres were recently between the Russian and South African Navy. But again, we do not believe that really is a cause for alarm or concern. We see BRICS... there are different groupings globally around the world. You will see that all over, some of them are with countries within the same region or sub-region, and some are with countries that have similar interests, so I think BRICS is just another one.
PT: Is Nigeria interested in becoming a member of BRICS?
Mr Onyeama: At the moment, it is not apparent what added value being a member of BRICS would bring. But clearly, if we saw that it would benefit Nigeria, then yes, maybe. But as things stand, it is not obvious what the value addition would be, and I think joining alliances or groupings just for the sake of joining alliances and groups really does not make sense.
PT: West Africa has seen many coups in recent years. Are we (Nigeria) worried that this is happening here?
Mr Onyeama: No. We have gone over 24 years changing governments democratically. One does not see a coup coming in Nigeria. I think we have gone beyond that; well, touch wood. I believe, and I would like to think, that we have gone beyond the stage of coups. As a country, we have evolved beyond that. The institutions are stronger, the democratic institutions are stronger, and the country is vast and a bit more complicated, so it would not be easy to have a coup in today's Nigeria.
PT: Today's Nigeria is witnessing a lot of pressure from the past election, and people are angry for several reasons. Do you think we are strong enough to go through this phase?
Mr Onyeama: Well, we will have to wait and see. But I still think that there is a certain resilience that we have developed in the country that will equip us to come through this. We have had all kinds of challenges in the recent past as well, the militancy, the IPOB, the Boko Haram, the bandits, and the herders. The country is resilient, and I think it can weather all that storms and will be able to respond and reshape those stresses to its unity and peace.
PT: In the last eight years, not until the President's Chief of Staff Ibrahim Gambari made clear what the country's foreign policy direction is, a lot of us were in the dark. How would you accept that Nigeria's foreign policy has been defined by stasis?
Mr Onyeama: I do not think that (Gambari's definition of Nigeria's foreign policy) is correct. I think our foreign policy is clear; we have been saying all the time from day one that a foreign policy is an extension of the interests of a country, your national interests. So you leverage your relations with foreign countries to promote those national interests. There is no magic word- citizens diplomacy, economic development- that defines your foreign policy because your foreign policy can evolve. We are developing policies about Sudan, as you asked, so foreign policies are always evolving. You cannot just say our foreign policy is this, and that is the end of it or that our foreign policy starts with our near neighbours. Our trade with Europe is 100 times more than our trade with Cameroon, Benin or Niger, so we cannot talk about that our foreign policy is with our near neighbours you know as such.
But when the president came on as president, he identified the country's core interests, so our foreign policy will be leveraging, promoting or trying to achieve those core interests through leveraging our relations with other countries. He made it clear - good governance, anti-corruption, security and the economy. So yes, economic diplomacy we have been promoting with countries around the world. On security, with our near neighbours, we have been fighting the Boko Haram war, but also we have been in alliance and cooperation with countries afar to support us in our security challenges on terrorism and even anti-corruption; we have been going around trying to have loot returned to the country and promoting good governance in Africa through the African Union with Mr President as the African Union champion you know, our anti-corruption champion. So your foreign policy is a lot more, I would not say complicated but nuanced, depending on the circumstances involved.
So what this government has probably done most is to seek to have good relations with all countries. I would call that a positive engagement with countries, and if you have that positive engagement with countries, you can leverage those good relations to get support in your fight against terrorism, anti-corruption... and trade with you. I do not think we can talk of capturing Nigeria's foreign policy in two words.
PT: How would you rate this administration's security performance?
Onyeama: Regarding Boko Haram, they are giving up in droves. Life is returning to normal in the Northeast, Maiduguri and many places. You can see that we are winning, and I would say almost have won as far as Boko Haram is concerned. I think we have made progress and gains in the fight against Boko Haram. I think that is clear for everybody to see and that eight years ago, when Mr President came in, Boko Haram was a hot topic, and the talk was that it was the most, in terms of killings, a destructive terrorist organisation in the world. But today, it is no longer about Boko Haram. There are other security challenges, too, but as far as Boko Haram is concerned, I think the government has done very well in really diminishing that threat.
PT: If Nigeria's foreign policy direction is to promote Nigeria's interests, I would imagine it also includes the interests of its citizens. This is to ask about the English proficiency test Nigerians are made to take. What is your office doing to see that Nigerians are excluded from taking this test?
Mr Onyeama: I am not sure that there is anything we can do in that regard. I suspect that possibly the reason certain countries or maybe educational institutions might have put that as a requirement might be because of experience from past students who have been coming into those educational institutions. One thing we have to remember and be clear about, if we are honest with ourselves, is that we have an uneven standard and quality of education in the country and that we still need to invest a lot more in terms of quality education. I think that this could be a reflection of that, that maybe we are getting a lot of students who, on the face of it, are at a certain level, but when put to the test, we find that they are really below that level.
I think that we should be looking at ourselves and our educational system and how we can improve them so that Nigerian students are worth the certificates that they have. I would say 30 to 40 years ago, there would not be any question about that, but I think if we are honest with ourselves, our standard of education probably is not where we would all like it to be.
PT: What is the strength of Nigeria's diplomatic service, and how would you rate the gender balance in the representation of active missions abroad?
Mr Onyeama: We have representation in 104 countries across the world, and for female representation, I cannot give you exact figures, but I think that there is pretty high representation. I would say that maybe 30 to 35 per cent female representation.
PT: Looking back on the last eight years as Nigeria's foreign minister, what are your key achievements?
Mr Onyeama: I would say the strengthening of bilateral relations with countries. So creating that engagement and respect with the countries that we deal with for Nigeria has provided, in my opinion, an enabling environment for us to push our interests.
PT: Just one?
Mr Onyeama: Yea, because then you have a lot of benefits from that. But I think the first thing is to elevate the level and the nature of the relationship with other countries to facilitate, to gain respect for Nigeria. We have seen Nigerians being elected into various positions, we have been able to get countries to support our candidates and so forth. Also, administratively within the ministry and the one or two big initiatives that we hope to launch very soon, a help desk so that Nigerians everywhere in the world, citizens diplomacy, can call in wherever they are if they have any problems. And there is an all week 24 hours help desk to respond and assist Nigerians. This is something that was clearly missing that we have been able also to bring and deliver. And also a platform that we have also developed to make it easier for Nigerian businesses to access foreign markets. A business matching platform that opens up the world for Nigerian businesses to access the global market and also to promote foreign direct investment into Nigeria. I think that is another concrete deliverable we have been able to deliver in the time we have been here.
PT: I am concerned about how soon you can deliver that, given your little time in the office.
Mr Onyeama: On the help desk, it will be launched or inaugurated before we leave. It is ready and running, so it is just a formal inauguration before we leave.
PT: Why does NiDCOM appear to be playing the foreign ministry role?
Mr Onyeama: Well, on NiDCOM, it is an agency within the foreign affairs ministry, so it is not an entity separate as such from the orbit of the foreign ministry. For us, it is not about competition; it is about what is beneficial for Nigerians, so if there is something of benefit to Nigerians, whether it is done by NiDCOM or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the important thing is that it benefits Nigeria.
PT: Categorically, you say NiDCOM is not taking away your job?
Mr Onyeama: But we are doing our job. I do not know in what way they would be taking over our job. They do not have contact with governments or foreign ministries of other countries; they do not have that connection with them. They are not supervising our embassies around the world. And as I said, foreign affairs is the primary interlocutor and speaker with other countries. NiDCOM cannot do that because they do not have that access to the Ministry of foreign affairs of other countries.
PT: What would be in your handover notes to your successor on areas where we need to improve?
Mr Onyeama: I would say mainly administrative. It will have to be us being able to resolve the funding issue of the ministry; I think that is really cardinal. And probably the automation of work procedures of the ministry, the computerisation of work procedures, and contact with our embassies.
PT: Speak to me more about funding.
Mr Onyeama: We are grossly underfunded, so you have a perpetual crisis due to the underfunding. And we need a mechanism. It is not just the ministry, but of course, I think the parliament and what is appropriated to the ministry and the government at large (budget), we have to give more to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs if we are going to maintain 104 missions around the world and also if we are going to reorganise the headquarters by giving it modern means of communication.
PT: What climate concerns have formed a major part of Nigeria's foreign policy under your leadership?
Mr Onyeama: We are fully engaged in the various Conferences of the Parties (COP) on climate issues. We have the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) that we will make as part of our climate action. But of course, I think the big challenge for us as a fossil fuel-producing country, oil and gas, is the move to net zero emission. We are putting it at 2060 at the moment. But clearly, that is one thing we have to really think about; the transition to clean energy as an energy-producing country. How we manage that because we need the resources from those fossil fuels, and so those are going to be, for a long time, the mainstay of our economy. But as we are plugged into climate action and reduction of fossil fuel consumption, we have to tread carefully going forward.
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PT: Do you think that 2060 is feasible for Nigeria?
Mr Onyeama: We will have to see; because that is the issue, that Western countries have developed on the back of carbon emissions, coal, oil and so forth, and it is almost like you climb up a ladder, and you get to the top, and others want to climb up the same ladder, and you now want to put the ladder away because of one reason or the other. That is something we have to see.
We saw with the issue of gas that, for a time, there was a concerted effort on the part of Western financial institutions and several Western countries not to fund any more gas projects, for instance. You know our gas is coming more and more on stream, and we were arguing that gas should be seen as a transition fuel over this time as we transition away from oil to give us time to transition. Suddenly we saw with the Ukraine crisis how dependent the same Western world is on gas and not talking so much any longer about defunding gas. These are some of those issues where we talk about double standards. So we have to look at our own interests, and that has to be preeminent and what we have to go by. The fact of the matter remains that, as I pointed out to John Kerry, the US climate envoy, as things are now, we are at net zero, more or less, in terms of emissions that we are contributing to the global carbon emissions. But their argument is that it will get more and more if you keep investing in it. But still, we are not the ones that have caused the climate crisis and the carbon emissions. However, we are committed as a government to net zero emissions and will try to get there.
PT: If I hear you clearly, you do not know how feasible 2060 is?
Mr Onyeama: It is feasible, of course, if you have the political will and you are prepared to make all the investments that are required and tighten your belt where you need to. So it is a question of the commitments of future governments. I am not in a position to say what the incoming administration's commitment and others will continue to be.
PT: Last October, there was a security alert about an impending terrorist attack in Nigeria. We have seen several occasions where foreign missions issued travel advisories to their citizens - correct me if I am wrong - but Nigeria does not have such practice. The principle of reciprocity, you know, allows us to do the same. Why has Nigeria not tapped into that?
Mr Onyeama: It is not a question of reciprocity. This is just advice that you give to your citizens; so if the Americans give such advice to their citizens, it is not an act of reciprocity as such for us to now give it to Nigerian citizens in the US because the US did that in Nigeria. I think that would be the wrong approach.
I think where there is a real issue - because do not forget that these are alerts given by embassies in a particular country - it is not foreign affairs or the foreign ministry; it is a local issue. For instance, in the situation in Khartoum, Sudan and also Ukraine, we gave an alert to Nigerians there. We will do that in any other country where there is a real issue in terms of avoiding certain places, but it is for each embassy to decide because they are living in that country and they know best, and the decision is completely up to them.
PT: The National Assembly a few weeks back proposed a bill to stop medical professionals from leaving the country. Are there any diplomatic responses to these issues?
It is a Nigerian domestic affair, not a foreign affairs issue. But I do not think it can be done regarding human rights, everybody has a right to free movement, to leave the country as they wish. If you have a bond agreement like the government pays for your medical education, they could put into that conditions for the scholarship that you will work for the government for five years or something like that, in which case they can insist on that.
