By Emmanuel Mbah
The United States government has been preparing grounds to bring together African leaders for its “US-African” summit scheduled to hold Dec 13-15 2022 . Its Ambassador to Nigeria, Mary Beth Leonard, during a recent visit to the Minister of Industry , Trade and Investment, Adeniyi Adebayo , said the country will continue to be eligible for preferential trade access to the US market under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). She said the criteria for eligibility among other things, include the establishment of a market based economy, rule of law, political pluralism, right to due process, fair trial, equal protection under the law, elimination of barriers to US trade and investment, economic policies to reduce poverty, a system to combat corruption and bribery, and protection of internationally recognised workers’ rights.
The Ambassador acknowledged the progress the country has made under President Buhari’s government to diversify and strengthen the market-based economy, poverty reduction, reforms in the power sector, raising electricity tariffs and implementation of the Nigerian Economic Sustainability Plan (NESP). She, however, expressed her government concern on the availability and accessibility of US firms to forex, particularly their ability to repatriate revenue and fulfil loan obligations in a timely manner, child labour and respect for the rule of law. Early on in November 2021, the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, visited Nigeria and reminded the government that the United States Agency for International Development, USAID, has a five-year $110 million Power Sector Program that is supporting key initiatives like the solar power Naija which will not only bring solar energy to 25 million Nigerians but expected to create as many as 250,000 new jobs in the energy sector. There is a new scramble for Africa’s material and human resources as a rapidly growing continent. By 2030 Africa will reportedly have 1.7 billion people, one fifth of the world’s population. In the spirit of that scramble, Blinken in August this year landed in South Africa to kick off a three nation African visit aimed at consolidating the US economic and political influence on the continent. He reportedly discussed with his South African counterpart, Naledi Pandor, “ongoing and recent developments relating to the global geopolitical situation.” The US Secretary of State moved on to visit mineral-rich Democratic Republic of Congo to boost support for Sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest country, which is battling to end a decade of conflict. He wound up his tour in Rwanda, which has seen a flare up in tensions with the Congo after it accused its neighbour to the east of backing M23 rebels, a charge Kigali denies. Back in July this year, the leading US Business Association, the US Corporate Council on Africa, in partnership with the Kingdom of Morocco hosted in Marrakech, Morocco the 14th US African Business summit themed “Building Forward Together.’’ It explored a renewed commitment by both public and private sector stake holders to building stronger US and African trade, investment and commercial ties. The summit was attended by 450 US economic operators and government officials from 50 countries.
Having watered the grounds with intense business engagements across the continent, Washington now plans to host African Leaders summit in mid- December this year. The summit, according to President Biden, who is yet to visit Africa since becoming President, ‘’will demonstrate the United States’ enduring commitment to Africa, and will underscore the importance of US – Africa relations and increased co-operation on shared global priorities’’. Leaders of African Countries must now be on their guard while choosing foreign partners for assistance in the process of developing economic and political ties. It seems the diplomatic efforts of Biden who so far has engaged other regions of the world with trips to visit US allies in Asia, Europe and the Middle East has been to promote western democracies as a counterweight to China. Since 2009 when China edged out the US as Africa’s largest bilateral trade partner, US= Africa Trade has declined reportedly from a peak of $142 billion in 2008 to just $64 billion in 2021. And the United States is determined to change that at all costs. Nigeria has been cooperating with the US on many levels since the return of civilian rule in 1999 but the result of such collaboration have not always been positive due to human rights concerns by Washington. In fact when Blinken visited he called for ‘’accountability over human rights concerns which have rattled US relationship with the country’’. Washington has severally threatened to abort military and technical cooperation with Nigeria on account of human rights violation and improper use of the Super Tucano war planes in conflict ridden North-eastern part of the country. Congressional objections once held up the sale of 12 cobra attack helicopters to Nigeria amid calls to probe whether the military was doing enough to prevent civilian deaths in the battle against Boko Haram jihadist insurgency.
Slamming sanctions on “undemocratic regimes”, such as Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan and other African countries are based on protection of human rights. “Capacity building goes much deeper than delivering military hardware,” Blinken told the Nigerian government, pledging efforts on training on human rights. President Biden really looks forward to hosting leaders across Africa. No doubt breakthrough agreements would be reached with many African leaders but it is clear that the main beneficiary of the forthcoming summit will be Washington. Morocco’s Minister of Industry and Trade, Ryad Mezzour, alluded to this when he alerted the continent at the closing plenary of the Moroccan Business summit that: “Our priorities as African countries must be to put sovereignty at the heart of all sector strategies and to see it as a priority for securing supply and employment. We must commit to encouraging local manufacturing, creating strategic reserves for certain key products, and diversifying sources of supply for energy and food.’’
Mbah Writes From Umuahia