• Nigeria should align more with countries that will view us as equals
A national security expert, Dr. Ody Ajike has said the policies of the United States under President Donald Trump are a wake-up calls for African countries.
In an interview with VINCENT KALU, the scholar and lawyer, stressed that Africa must look inwards and build itself up to be resilient and united, noting that Africa has a spectrum of possibilities to develop its resources and prevent the predatory accumulation of natural resources from Africa by the West.
Donald Trump has just been sworn in as the US president. No African president was invited for the event. What is your reaction to this?
The refined Donald Trump as United States of America president comes with a lot of challenges and prospects for not just Africa, but also the entire world. The complex relationship between Trump and the truth will be more defined in the sense of his capacity for fact free decision-making. Trump will exacerbate a very critical problem facing the world, which is the attitude of the United States towards global challenges. Let us not forget that the United States shaped the post 1945 international peace and prosperity, but this global structure has changed dramatically and I believe Trump does not acknowledge this development. Trump should be more concerned with what role the United States will play in creating and sustaining this new global structure.
For Africa, we all know that Africa is gradually losing its strategic significance politically, but with the influence China is exerting in Africa, it will become a new turf for the US and other Western countries to contest against Chinese influence though they present no credible alternative. The non-invitation of African leaders to Trump’s inauguration should serve as an instrument of awareness for African leaders to know where and who we are and locate ourselves with others globally.
He has issued many Executive Orders. One is the issue of immigration, and illegal immigrants are being deported to their countries of origin. What does this portend?
Immigration is a strategic advantage and can never be a threat to the wellbeing of any country. In as much as countries should manage immigration well, Trump is good at making fact free decisions hinged on authoritarian populism, which is a new development globally. This is a form of political behaviour that results in repressive measures and abhors collective decision-making. I agree countries should manage their immigration and place criteria for migration and emigration, but Trump has an alternative conception of reality. We are yet to see what he intends to achieve with this immigration policy because no country is an island. Trump has made other countries look like supplicant countries and he forgets that the American society is one with different asymmetries of social and market powers, which breed inequalities and exploitative work. Others will certainly strengthen what is of value to them.
Some are applauding him, querying why the US should be carrying other nations’ responsibilities. What do you say to this?
I believe Trump has forged policies designed for his benefit and his actual area of support. The well-being of the larger society he believes will be incidental. There are mixed reactions to Trump’s policies in Africa and across the world. Policies concerning gays and lesbian are applauded in Africa due to our cultural orientation. His economic policies are attracting condemnation from Asia and North America. His immigration policies are also attracting condemnation and the optics look terrible. I admit there have been significant changes in global popular consciousness and a change in world politics. This US behaviour comes always when it perceives that there will likely be a collaborative behaviour by other states. Trump may end up turning serious international problems into devastating crises. The US advocated a control of other nation’s responsibilities, so why are they complaining now? Well, this is what Chomsky calls ‘Politainment’, meaning politics as entertainment. However, there is always an extravagant commitment by Trump for serial policy inconsistency, which is a form of entertainment and radical nationalism.
The US is the highest funder of the World Health Organisation. With the US withdrawal, how can the international organisation cope, and how would the poor nations that are mostly the beneficiaries come to grip with the withdrawal?
There are indeed two major problems in the world – health and money. This means health is important. The US is beginning to lose control of international institutions and as this happens, they begin to refuse to agree to their demands. We have seen US refusal to agree to rules made by the International Court of Justice, WTO, ICC, etc, except for IMF and World Bank, where a dollar represents a vote.
We have witnessed the US dismantle the Central American Court of Justice, which it established, when there was a ruling against them. Therefore, US withdrawal of funding for World Health Organisation is not a big issue, but another dose of terrible injustice targeted at developing countries of the world.
Reason has always been a servant of interest; so whatever their interest, it is best known to them.
It will certainly help the organisation to make its operations more efficient. WHO should rely less on individual major donors, diversify its funding sources, and make it broader through seeking funding from a wider range of member-states. There are other countries that can partner with WHO, including emerging economies and other regional blocs.
US action is part of the US exceptionalism of being unique and beyond any need for international consensus and being entitled to do whatever it wants at any time. This withdrawal will make other countries not to be spectators but also participants. We should all remember that the US vetoed a UN Resolution on the right to food and right to the highest attainable standards of physical and mental health and the world did not end. The plan of the US is to create through the Trumpian policies a world of isolated countries that will be at the mercy of their concentrated capitalist powers in the international health industry.
Will this not result in health crisis the world over?
This will not result to a global health crisis because the US cannot offer the world what they do not have. Their commitment to public health is profit not health care. The US has lost the leadership in public health. With a public health system that is in shambles, they believe they must go nativist, protective and populist. Trump is known for routinised exaggerations and crowd-pleasing high-minded rhetoric. Trump essentially operates on attitude not policy. The US has the highest mortality rate in the Western World. Their health care system with all the scandals is privately run, fragmented and highly unregulated. It is profit driven with incentives for expensive treatment instead of preventative care because the US big Pharmas will not tolerate a global health care system due to profits. The last pandemic exposed the US health system as scandalous and we know that China took the lead in supporting the world.
Health Care in the US is big business and the US has the highest budget for health care in the world, yet its health care system is grossly inefficient in comparison with other western countries or countries within the American Continent such as Cuba. It ranks last in performance.
What should be Nigeria’s foreign policy in the face of the new challenges from US?
Do we really have a robust foreign policy framework? Foreign policy is based on economic power of every country. We are a highly indebted country and this poses challenges in formulating a robust foreign policy framework. Nigeria should build up our industrial base and drive technological progress before we can start talking about foreign policy. We should align more with countries that will view us as equals. Let us first strengthen what is of value to us and close the gaps in our social economy through meaningful national integration before we begin to speak of foreign policy. Foreign policy is economic power, which we currently lack. Our greatest need now is to build a national ideological infrastructure to suppress ethnicity and injustice.
With this development, what should the African continent be doing?
Africa must pursue the goal of extracting a continental policy from the US and not programmes that are not best fit for the African Continent. Africa must look inwards and build itself up to be resilient and united. Africa has a spectrum of possibilities to develop its resources and prevent the predatory accumulation of natural resources from Africa by the West. Africa has the youngest youth population in the world to encourage economic interaction with the world and make itself very attractive. The contentions between the US and China will actually be on the African soil. Africa indeed matters and our role will expand tremendously as we progress into this century due to our natural resources.
Africa has been violated with programmes by the US that are largely unproductive and unsuitable to our needs. From Africa Growth and Opportunity Act to Emergency AIDS Relief to Power Africa and Prosper Africa. None has prospered Africa sustainably, but Africa seen through their wobbled lenses as a charity zone rather than a strategic economic partner.
About 3,960 Nigerians are to be deported from the US. What should the government to address their trauma and reabsorb them into the society?
The government should improve internal social relations. National integration and justice should be one of the cores of the Tinubu Government. An equal opportunity economy built on social justice and based on merit should be a core agenda of the government. We have a demographic bonus and we can convert this bonus to dividends of development.