Nigeria and politics as interest, By José Ramos-Horta

Nigeria’s historical past is one in every of resilience, one additionally of a historical past formed by competing pursuits — of political elites, multinational companies, and international powers within the type of what Professor Badejo aptly refers to as “exterior dynamics.” These pursuits have decided insurance policies, financial priorities, and even the fates of individuals. However the world at giant can’t proceed on this path. We should urgently engineer a brand new structure for international and nationwide governance, primarily based on justice, fairness, and equal duty.

How a lot I might have liked to be in Nigeria once more? I and President Goodluck Jonathan constructed immediate mutual liking and respect. I first met President Goodluck Jonathan at an African Union (AU) summit in Addis Ababa in January 2013, earlier than I began my project as Particular Consultant of the UN Secretary-Common in Guinea-Bissau (January 2013-June 2014). UNSG Ban Ki-Moon (BKM) had requested that I joined him in Addis Ababa for an African Union Summit, the place I acquainted myself with skilled UN area leaders, together with the foremost and broadly revered economist, Carlos Lopes, who was then Head of the UN EconomicCommission for Africa.

Properly earlier than the appointed time for Ban Ki-Moon and I to satisfy President Goodluck Jonathan, I had arrived on the president’s visitor home. BKM was delayed at a gathering with President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni of Uganda, I used to be advised. A senior adviser to President Jonathan recognised me and instantly knowledgeable the president, and I used to be taken to him. We had at the least a half-hour heat and substantive dialog earlier than BKM joined us.

Right now’s celebrant, Professor Femi Badejo, was my Chief of Workers in Guinea-Bissau. He was all smiles as he met me on the airport in Bissau, whilst he knew that I would exchange him with one other particular person as my Chef de Cupboard. This didn’t occur, and I shortly realised that I wanted an skilled West African and one with quick access to leaders within the area. So started a working relationship that developed right into a friendship lasting until in the present day.

He facilitated conferences with Heads of State within the West African sub-region. We labored laborious collectively to revive constitutional order, return the army to the barracks, and maintain free and clear elections in Guinea-Bissau. I’ve to say, my nation, Timor-Leste, contributed with at the least $8 million for the 2014 elections in Guinea-Bissau, way more than any single West African nation, and greater than the EU.

I’m very happy to affix you in the present day in celebrating the life and achievements of a distinguished scholar, good friend, and colleague in international affairs, Professor Babafemi Adesina Badejo. His contributions to political thought and governance have enriched Nigeria’s mental society and supplied insights into the advanced interaction of pursuits that form politics.

The theme of this symposium, “Politics is Pursuits” couldn’t be timelier. We dwell in an period the place particular pursuits dictate the course of worldwide affairs, usually on the expense of justice, fairness, and the collective good. The problem earlier than us is to interrogate these pursuits and work in direction of governance frameworks that prioritise the well-being of the individuals.

For its facet, Nigeria should harness its wealth — mental capital, human sources, and plentiful pure endowments — to serve its individuals first. Similar to Donald Trump has been reiterating “America First”, Nigerian governments and its individuals ought to more and more insist on “Nigeria First”. This projection of “Nigeria First” should be executed in a fashion that enhances manufacturing and productiveness and promotes wholesome competitors within the lookout for one of the best pursuits of its individuals.

Our world in the present day is about in an unfair and exploitative method of energy relations. The very establishments designed to uphold justice, peace, safety, and stability are failing us earlier than our very eyes. As I’ve said earlier than in a few of my commentaries, “we’ve repeatedly didn’t anticipate crises and stop conflicts. The UN Safety Council is paralysed, out of date, and unrepresentative of the world in the present day.” This failure has allowed wars to rage unchecked – in Ukraine, Gaza, DRC (Congo), Myanmar – leaving destruction of their wake and numerous lives misplaced.

Nigeria, a continental pressure, will not be immune to those international dynamics. Like many different nations, it faces the burden of navigating each home and exterior pursuits. The query earlier than us is: How can Nigeria place its nationwide curiosity inside a world order that prioritises the highly effective over the weak?

The Politics of Pursuits in Nigeria’s Growth

Nigeria’s historical past is one in every of resilience, one additionally of a historical past formed by competing pursuits — of political elites, multinational companies, and international powers within the type of what Professor Badejo aptly refers to as “exterior dynamics.” These pursuits have decided insurance policies, financial priorities, and even the fates of individuals. However the world at giant can’t proceed on this path. We should urgently engineer a brand new structure for international and nationwide governance, primarily based on justice, fairness, and equal duty.

For its facet, Nigeria should harness its wealth — mental capital, human sources, and plentiful pure endowments — to serve its individuals first. Similar to Donald Trump has been reiterating “America First”, Nigerian governments and its individuals ought to more and more insist on “Nigeria First”. This projection of “Nigeria First” should be executed in a fashion that enhances manufacturing and productiveness and promotes wholesome competitors within the lookout for one of the best pursuits of its individuals. Ideally, “America or Nigeria first” doesn’t equate to crushing down on different nations. Our lives are so interconnected throughout the globe that financial diseases beginning in a significant economic system shortly reverberate and sink different economies throughout its borders and past. And instability and conflicts in mineral wealthy nations of the South fuelled by exterior pursuits all the time have a boomerang impact. This leads me into my subsequent line of thought.

A Altering International Pursuits Construction

We’re witnessing evolution in international alignments — from the rise of BRICS to the questioning of the relevance of Bretton Woods establishments. The emergence of China as an financial powerhouse has additionally brought on deep anxieties in Western capitals. I’ve repeatedly said: China is NOT a menace to the US or to some other nation. China is a troublesome, good competitor, however it’s not an “enemy.”

We want a world the place competitors is wholesome; competitors that forces us all to suppose outdoors the field, to grasp that our youth is our future, and we make investments extra in our personal youth to be modern, to design and create, a contest that doesn’t escalate into battle and hostilities. The US, Europe, and China should discover pathways of cooperation that profit all, slightly than fuelling divisions that serve solely the pursuits of a choose few.

The position of management in all of that is important. Professor Babafemi Badejo has been blunt on the matter of management deficit, corruption, and mismanagement of sources. He has spent his profession impacting data for constructing governance constructions in post-conflict conditions. Throughout my mission in Guinea-Bissau, we designed a strategic improvement plan that was meant to assist Guinea-Bissau alongside the traces of improvement. Nonetheless, time was too brief to deal with the essential drawback of management deficit in that nation…

Equally, Africa – and Nigeria particularly – should assert itself on this evolving world order. Moderately than being a pawn in international rivalries, Nigeria ought to leverage its place to form worldwide commerce, expertise, and diplomatic partnerships that align with its developmental targets. Nigeria should outline its pursuits, not have them dictated by others. An enormous nation, with the human and pure sources that Nigeria has, shouldn’t have something to do with competing for paltry worldwide support that solely builds dependency.

The position of management in all of that is important. Professor Babafemi Badejo has been blunt on the matter of management deficit, corruption, and mismanagement of sources. He has spent his profession impacting data for constructing governance constructions in post-conflict conditions. Throughout my mission in Guinea-Bissau, we designed a strategic improvement plan that was meant to assist Guinea-Bissau alongside the traces of improvement. Nonetheless, time was too brief to deal with the essential drawback of management deficit in that nation to genuinely advance the course of the favored realisation of my good friend’s pet expression: utmost freedom.

I like this time period as a result of, as Femi idealises, it’s the summation of the welding collectively of two key United Nations paperwork: the Common Declaration on Human Rights and the Sustainable Growth Targets. Badejo’s works problem us to rethink the very nature and utility of political energy. Leaders should rise past the rapid gratification of elite pursuits and work in direction of a politics of collective progress as fashionable wants are moderately met.

Because the celebrant has resoundingly admonished, we should prioritise the pursuit of utmost freedom – a state wherein improvement, human rights, peace/safety, humanitarianism, and governance align – will not be solely fascinating however essential. This imaginative and prescient should information genuine management grounded within the individuals because it navigates home and international pursuits.

Conclusion

As we honour Professor Babafemi Badejo in the present day, allow us to draw from his concepts, ideas, and impacts in scholarship and his dedication to good governance and improvement. Allow us to decide to re-examining energy, rethinking governance, and reimagining a world the place energy serves the better pursuits of a inhabitants, slightly than a privileged few.

Might God bless us all.

José Ramos-Horta, a Nobel Peace Laureate, is the president of Timor-Leste.

That is the textual content of his speech on the seventieth birthday ceremony in honour of Professor Femi Badejo held on the College of Lagos in the present day.