Presidential monologue – Part 29

Mr President, peace be unto you. I weigh in on the Samoa Agreement controversy sparked by Nigeria’s accession to the agreement in a manner most indiscreet.
Mr. President, in early 2014, Senator Murktar and I represented Nigeria at the Cotonou review meeting of the Cotonou Agreement. Former President Obasanjo chaired the meeting. Ahead of the meeting, I read every available text on the agreement and concluded that there was nothing in the agreement beneficial to the African, Caribbean, and Pacific States. From the 1975 Lome Convention to the review period, the partnership ostensibly to help the ACP states had delivered nothing.

For example, The Cotonou Partnership Agreement 2000 which lapsed in 2020 covered cooperation in the political, economic/ trade, and development areas. How many countries have been nudged into democracy, maybe elections underlined by electoral malfeasance? Look at the balance of trade.

African states and others in the partnership have remained a dumping ground for European finished goods while even our raw materials export depends on how much they are willing to take off from us and a price largely determined by them. Development aids are often tied. Historically, no country helps another to develop.

Still on the discontent of the EU-ACP partnership, Stephen Hurt in his article, “Co-operation and coercion? The Cotonou Agreement between the European Union and ACP states and the end of the Lomé Convention” published in Third World Quarterly, volume 24, number 1, 2003 noted that “Despite the emphasis of ‘partnership’ in both the Lomé Conventions and the Cotonou Agreement, there have long been those who have questioned this.

Marjorie Lister coined the phrase ‘discreet entente’ to describe the early years of the Lomé Convention. In doing so she aimed to highlight the unequal and political nature of a relationship that was officially portrayed as non-political. Aiming to show why it was a non-political arrangement, an EU Commissioner remarked in 1981, using classic realist-centred beliefs, that, “the Community is weak, it has no weapon, it has no aircraft, it has no submarine, it’s completely inapt to exercise any domination. This in many ways is a great asset to deal in the Third World, to discuss with the Third World. The European Community is young, it has no past.”

To be sure, I laid bare the discontent of the agreement, namely, a reinforcement of the age-long exploitation of the third world. However, given my realist knowledge of the dynamics of international relations, I advised a continuous engagement with the European Union to the scenario detailed by John Perkins in his bestseller, The Confessions of an Economic Hitman. Perkins noted that when the interest of the imperialists is undermined, they will send in the jackals. The result is often the assassination of heads of state and sundry covert operations to subvert the sovereignty of states. So, I counselled that we remain engaged with the EU rather than disengage.

Despite the huge information, it was disheartening that Nigeria and other states from ACP countries appended their signature to the so-called agreement which sets out to aggrandise the EU and mainstream European ‘woke ideology’ of anything goes. When the news of accession by Nigeria to the Samoa agreement broke, the NewsScroll Editorial of Friday, July 5, came in critical strains: “The Samoa Agreement, named after the Pacific Island where it was signed, requires participating countries to support LGBTQ+ rights in exchange for financial aid and other supports from more advanced nations. This is a blatant challenge to the cultural and religious beliefs prevalent in Nigeria, where both Islamic and Christian teachings strongly oppose same-sex relationships. The government’s attempt to downplay the implications of this agreement by asserting that it only pertains to economic development is misleading and disingenuous.”

It further averred that “Civil society organisations, clerics, and legal experts have rightly expressed their outrage over this development. The signing of the Samoa Agreement undermines Nigeria’s sovereignty and threatens to erode the moral fabric of its society. It is essential for the National Assembly to withhold approval for this agreement and for President Bola Tinubu to repudiate it unequivocally. The government’s priority should be to uphold the laws and values of Nigeria, not to succumb to external pressures that compromise the country’s national integrity.”

Nevertheless, reportedly some members of the National Assembly in pursuit of Self-interest pressured members of the executive branch of government to sign the agreement.  Muhammed Argungu, a director of International Parliamentary Organisations, the National Assembly had in a letter dated May 9, 2024 signed on behalf of Sani Tambawal, the Clerk of the National Assembly, urged, Atiku Bagudu, the Minister of Budget and National Planning, to sign the agreement, and pay all of Nigeria’s outstanding obligations to the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States and European Union, Joint Parliamentary Assembly (OACPS-EU-JPA).

The rationale, without scrutiny of the national interest, is to allow a Nigerian delegation to “represent West Africa in the Bureau of the Regional Assembly. Regrettably, her nomination was, however, stepped down because Nigeria had not signed the Samoa Agreement and also due to Nigeria’s indebtedness” (see Premium Times of July 15, 2024).

Ridiculously, government officials were involved in some sterile arguments that there were no offensive clauses in the agreement and that they signed after absolute scrutiny mediated by an interministerial committee convened by the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning (FMBEP) in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and the Federal Ministry of Justice (FMOJ). It argued that none of the 103 Articles and Provisions of the Agreement were in ultra vires to the Constitution and other extant laws.

The soft copy of the agreement does not have words like LGBT+ word in black and white. It is replete with phrases with extended meanings such as gender equality, reproductive health, and human rights without discrimination (read the elucidatory statement of the Catholic Bishop Conference of Nigeria, July 11, 2024). It is well that the National Assembly has urged the executive arm of government to withdraw its signatory to the agreement which like previous ones has the manifest function woven around the tackling of climate change, migration, and security.

Mr President, withdraw Nigeria’s consent. It was Mr Emmanuel Akhabue, a London resident, who once said that those who lacked knowledge of a subject deserved to be taught.