Why Nigeria should beware of foreign pacts and entanglements

By Dr. Ibiyinka Oluwole Solarin

Special to USAfricaonline.com

George Washington, the first president of the colonies of North America, that fought off, defeated British colonialism and established the constitutional foundation of what is now known as the United States of America, was a man of extraordinary understanding and grasp of political economy of international relations. In his farewell address, at the end of his term of office on September 17,1796, Washington gave a ringing admonition to his compatriots to steer clear of foreign entanglement.

More than two hundred years ago, the man referred to as the father of the American nation advanced well-thought out views, and adduced incontrovertible reasons for the advice to his successors to beware of the perils of ill-judged international ventures, the grounds of which are ill defined, and the premise spurious and false.

Washington's admonition is apt, relevant and instructive for us in Nigeria today in light of the revelation, The Guardian of Nigeria on March 24 and the Vanguard of March 26, 2000, that the Obasanjo administration very early at its inception , actually sought to enter into a defense pact with the United States of America. It is hard to believe that a government headed by Obasanjo, a man who knows, a man who ought to know, can labor under the illusion that the cause of democracy and national security of our country will be promoted and sustained by any other entity other than the good people of Nigeria. What evidence is there in our history as a nation that would encourage this fantasy?

The support of our 'traditional' friends in our efforts to maintain the corporate existence and territorial integrity of our nation, July 1967 to January 1970? The total support of these friends in the grim and dark days of November 1993 to June 1998?

In 1796, Washington warned against "the illusion of animaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists [the rise of] corrupted , ambitious or deluded citizens who devote themselves to the favorite nation to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country without odium, sometimes even with popularity, gliding even with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation." He concluded "It is our policy to steer clear of permanent alliances it is folly in one nation to look for disinterested favors from another; it must pay with a portion of independence for whatever it may accept under that character; it is an illusion which experience must cure."

There is nothing in the political experience, the political history of Nigeria that encourages anyone to believe that a defense pact with any country is in our interest: au contraire, our travail in the forty years of independence teaches anything but this fantasy. The task before us is to build strong durable institutions, governmental and non-governmental, that will lift us from the crippling legacy of arbitrary and capricious rule, to the era of liberal prosperous democracy, so that our people will be able to defend the democratic way of life. To enter into an unequal treaty, is to drive our polity into a dark and unknown tunnel, and raise dangerous suspicion about the role and place of our country on our continent. A nation whose institutions are strong and robust will not hand over its sovereignty to another in form of a defense pact. George Washington's words were true in 1796; they are truer today
•Dr. Solarin, a lecturer of political science at Texas College, Tyler, is a contributing editor and columnist for USAfrica The Newspaper and NigeriaCentral.com

Eritreans, Ethiopians continue killings while their children starve to death. By Chido Nwangwu(AP photography by Brennan Linsley) "Africans in U.S. are losing our kids to American culture" says Mrs. D.C Ejindu MONEYWATCH U.S., Namibia enter aviation treaty U.S.-trained Zimbabwean economist Callisto Madavo, named World Bank's vice president for the Africa Region	Control, ownership of Prof. Gates' documentary raise need for 'real' Encyclopedia Africana. By Samuel Lee Burnham African, African-American Scholars clash over Prof. Gates' PBS series on Africa