By Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D. When Samuel Johnson, the self-taught pioneer of English lexicography, said “Patriotism is the last refuge o...
By Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.
When Samuel Johnson, the self-taught pioneer of
English lexicography, said “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel,” he
had people like Doyin Okupe—and other loudmouthed hirelings of President
Goodluck Jonathan— in mind. In the last few days, Okupe and officials of the
Foreign Affairs Ministry have made ringing appeals to patriotism to galvanize
popular support in their opposition to the American government’s strong reaction against the ill-advised state pardon to Diprieye Alamsieghya and other
convicted criminals.
Johnson’s statement, made on April 7, 1775, wasn’t a
denunciation of patriotism as such; it was only a critique of false patriotism,
of opportunistic, politically convenient patriotism, such as the kind being
displayed by the Jonathan administration in the wake of the national and
international reprobation that the government’s pardon of high-end criminals
has evoked. Ordinarily, every Nigerian should have been rightly offended by the
American government’s intrusion into our internal affairs, especially because
previous American presidents have also had occasions to pardon notorious
criminals.
But here are
five reasons why the Jonathan administration’s recourse to nationalism against
the US government is hollow and unconvincing.
One, all post-independence Nigerian governments,
with the exception of the late General Murtala Muhammed military regime,
actively and slavishly seek the approval of Washington almost as a state policy. This is especially true of Goodluck Jonathan,
as you will see shortly. You can’t zealously
hanker after another government’s approval for what you do and turn around to
invoke “sovereignty” when that same government rebukes you.
Two, in the wake of the late President Umar Musa
Yar’adua’s sickness and the succession crisis it caused in 2010, Jonathan
sought legitimacy for his acting presidency from the US. He came here and had
photo opportunities with President Obama and other top US government officials
precisely because he wanted America’s symbolic stamp of authority for his
presidency. Several sources confided in me that Jonathan was brought to
America—as embarrassingly ill-prepared as he was and still is—because it was
said that seeing him shake hands with Obama and other top US government
functionaries would intimidate his opponents into accepting him as a legitimate
acting president. You can’t go to another country to derive the social and
symbolic basis of your legitimacy and turn around to accuse that same country
of “meddlesomeness” when it tells you something you don’t want to hear.
Three, President Jonathan—more than any Nigerian
president before him—exults in the worthless, diplomatic pat on the back of the
White House with the kind of pitiably dewy-eyed ebullience that I’ve never seen
in any national leader. He accords more value to the empty extolments of the
White House than he does to the genuine judgment of his administration by the
people who elected him. For instance, about two years ago, in the heat of withering
criticism against his lackluster and directionless governance, Jonathan said
his Nigerian critics must be wrong because even Obama had praised him.
As reported
by Vanguard of September 26, 2011, during a speech
at a Lagos church in response to unremitting national criticisms against him,
Jonathan said, “I just got back from the US. The President of America is like
the president of the world because it is the most powerful country…. Obama when
he spoke commended Nigeria but back home we are being abused.” So Jonathan was
basically saying: if Obama, the “president of the world,” praised me, who are
you ordinary Nigerian mortals to criticize me?
In other words, Obama’s lone praise was worth more
than the opinions of all Nigerians. There are many problems with this. First,
Obama—and all presidents—are taught to “praise” everybody that they have a
face-to-face encounter with. It means nothing. It is mere empty diplomatic
ritual. Even the late Mobutu Seseko of Zaire, at the height of his savage butchery
of his own people, was once referred to as "a voice of good sense and
goodwill" by the late President Ronald Reagan. Second, Obama can’t be a
better judge of Jonathan’s administration than the people who actually feel the
pinch of the administration’s double-dyed incompetence.
But my own concern is that a man who so values the endorsement
of a foreign president (whom he calls “the president of the world”) can’t turn
around and talk about “meddlesomeness” when that foreign president criticizes
his government. If, in the estimation of Jonathan, Obama’s faint praise of him trumped
the censorious opinions of most Nigerians, the US government’s subsequent criticism
of Jonathan can’t be evidence of “meddlesomeness.”
Four, Nigerian government officials can’t talk of “sovereignty”
when they perpetually seek aid money from the United States government. With
$625 million in aid last year, which we really don’t need given our vast oil
wealth, Nigeria is the 8th
largest recipient of aid from the United States.
According to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the goal of
foreign aid is to offer “economic, development and humanitarian assistance
around the world in support of the foreign policy goals of the United States.”
In other words, accepting aid from the United States comes with the
understanding that you will give up some of your sovereignty in furtherance of
America’s foreign policy goals. If you don’t want “meddlesomeness,” don’t
collect aid money.
Finally, as revelations from WikiLeaks show, all top
government officials in Nigeria do not, for a split second, believe in the
country’s sovereignty. They all voluntarily go to US embassy staff on a
periodic basis to squeal. The US government doesn’t even need secret agents to
get Nigeria’s national secrets. It just needs to call Jonathan and he would be
flattered to be deemed worthy to divulge Nigeria’s national secrets to America.
I can bet my bottom dollar that Jonathan and his
minions are peeing in their pants now and looking for ways to remedy their
mistake and redeem themselves before the American government. They are grandstanding
and making vain appeals to patriotism and nationalism just for the consumption
of the Nigerian public.
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