POLITICS-NIGERIA: Defending President Obasanjo’s Overseas Trips

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Remi Oyo

LAGOS, Mar 6 2001 (IPS) - A top Nigerian official has defended President Olusegun Obasanjo’s overseas trips as a necessary exercise to polish up the country’s image.

The official, Olusegun Runsewe, who is Executive Director of the state-owned National Orientation Agency, says: “Nigeria has had a very bad image. It’s, therefore, proper for Mr. President to travel to as many nations as possible to win friends.”

Runsewe, whose agency is involved in re-building Nigeria, says Obasanjo’s trips aim at winning investors’ confidence. “His visits are yielding lots of interests in Nigeria,” he says. “Everyone now wants a piece of the cake in Africa’s largest market.”

Nigeria, with a population of about 120 million people, produces oil and gas, and other mineral resources. Renewed interests in Nigeria began gathering pace after Obasanjo’s election in May 1999, following 17 years of uninterrupted military rule.

Recent dignitaries to Nigeria included Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid and the President of the World Bank James Wolfenson, as well as the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Horst Koehler.

Runsewe, a former newspaper Publisher, says Obasanjo is “working hard to erase the pains inflicted on Nigerians and their nation under despotic regimes like that of (the late General Sani) Abacha”, who died in June 1999.

“The President’s visits have helped to portray Nigeria as a serious nation. That cannot be done by the President just sitting in Abuja”, he told IPS this week.

He also has pointed to the recent certification of Nigeria by the United States for its anti-drug efforts. Obasanjo hailed Washington’s decision when he received the new American ambassador, Howard Jeter, in Abuja at the weekend. “Nigeria desires to be relevant and have a strategic, mutually beneficial partnership with Washington”, he said.

He invited American investors to develop Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.

Obasanjo, former military leader (1976-1979), has earned the distinction as Nigeria’s most travelled head of state since independence in 1960.

He has, so far, clocked more than 40 trips abroad, mainly to attend summits, as peacemaker in troubled African nations, or as salesman for his nation’s battered, but potentially rich economy. In one of his trips, his aging presidential jet developed engine problems in Zurich, Switzerland on his way from a global economic conference in January.

Next week he begins another three-day state visit to Russia at the invitation of President Vladimir Putin. A statement from the president’s office says Obasanjo will seize the opportunity of the visit to “explore areas in which bilateral cooperation between Nigeria and Russia can be further strengthened.”

The rehabilitation of Nigeria’s Defence Industries Corporation, which is already being examined by a newly inaugurated Nigeria- Russia Joint Technical Committee, is expected to feature prominently on their agenda.

The trip to Russia was proceeded by a weekend visit to Libya by Obasanjo.

The dividends recorded in Obasanjo’s travels remain insignificant in terms of effects on the country’s ailing economy. The growth rate remains low at 2.8 per cent, a phenomenon unlikely to improve the quality of lives of Nigerians, according to Joseph Sanusi, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

In a bid to jump-start Nigeria’s economy, Obasanjo has established a Presidential Advisory Council on Investment comprising mainly foreign entrepreneurs.

Membership of the Council includes former World Bank President Robert Macnamara, former British Minister Linda Chalker and David Folkerts-Landau, Managing Director of Germany’s Deutshe Bank as Chairperson.

Folkerts-Landau, at a speech marking the inauguration of the council in Abuja last week, warned that “the delay in the deregulation of the power sector would result in loss of investors’ confidence.”

The privatisation programme has been beleaguered by criticisms from the country’s vocal labour unions and the public who claim lack of transparency in the process.

Some ordinary Nigerians also have reacted about Obasanjo’s overseas trips. One of them, Sunday Stevens told IPS: “There are so many domestic problems and the President is always travelling abroad.”

“No matter how many times he travels,” he said, “no one will come here to invest unless he improves our domestic situation.”

Obasanjo, who turned 64 this week, has set up legal structures to fight corruption, a culture which is endemic in the West African country. He also has thrown open Nigeria’s economy to foreign investors.