Birds can be in Africa in one season and migrate to Europe in another. They do not have the concept of boundaries. Animals went to wherever they could find food. This way, our forefathers moved around. Where one is now living was probably not where ones ancestors lived a thousand years ago. In Igbo land, for example, where a particular group now lives was not where they lived a few hundred years ago. Ngwa people (Aba), for example, lived at Mbutu Mmbaise just a few hundred years ago. The point is that the idea of boundaries and the nation states they enclose, are a new phenomenon in human history.

NATION STATE, TERRITORY

In 1517, Martin Luther challenged the Catholic Church and precipitated religious wars that lasted over 130 years. The various kings of Europe fought each other trying to reclaim whichever land had left the Church for the Church. When the wars ended, a treaty was signed at Westphalia, Germany, in 1648. That treaty is generally recognized as the beginning of the nation-state, for, in it, the European powers recognized each other’s territory as, more or less, permanent and not to be attacked and appropriated by other kings.

However, having recognized each other’s nation-state, Europeans did not extend the same courtesy to non-Europeans. Through the early 20th century, lands not belonging to European nations were considered terra cotta, not inhabited by human beings and thus are empty land. Whichever European nation’s citizens’ first got to that new land and planted his country’s flag on it, his nation is said to own it. That way, Europeans took much of the world and saw them as theirs. They took over the Americas, north and south; Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and much of Africa and Asia.

In international law, non-Europeans did not have rights to territory until after the Second World War.

For our present purposes, nation-states now exist. They are the primary internationally recognized human grouping. Usually, if a nation-state is a member of the United Nations, it is assumed that it has sovereignty over its territory and is recognized in international law to govern itself without unnecessary interference by other nations (Except if those other nations are strong and powerful; George Bush woke up one fine morning and decided to attack and occupy Iraq and kick out Saddam Hussein from office; and as a pretext for doing so, he accused Saddam of having weapons of mass destruction, fully aware that the man did not have them; might makes right; Bush the second’s father had failed to occupy Iraq while he was at it, when he occupied Kuwait and that allegedly cost him the next presidential election and his wimpy son decided to seem tough by finishing what his father started).

The nation-state is the unit of human groupings recognized by the United Nations to exercise power within its territory without others challenging it. There are over 200 nation-states in the extant world, most of which are members of the United Nations.

NATIONAL INTEREST

In international relations, it is assumed that the international arena is a lawless arena, a jungle and that each nation is like Thomas Hobbes man in state of nature and is looking after its own interests and could care less for others interests.

National Interests is said to be what motivates nations in their relationships with other nations. Nation A wants to optimize its interests when it relates to nation B and vice versa.

Because each nation is looking after its national interests only power can limit it from getting what it wants. No law prevents nation A from attacking nation B to get what it wants. Nation A, the USA, desired the oil found in nation B, Iraq, and attacked it. It attacked nation B to gratify its national interests, its need for oil.

Of course, it is crude to put it this way. Therefore, nation A comes up with phony excuses regarding why it attacked nation B. It claims that it did so in self-defense because nation B allegedly has weapons of mass destruction that it could use on it. Thus, to protect itself, nation A preemptively attacked nation B. When A’s bold lie was seen through, another lie was invented and presented to the world. Nation A now claims that it is out to spread democracy in nation B, the Arab world.

Nation A is now the big brother of the Arab world, making sure that democracy is given to Arab countries. In the meantime, nation A steals nation B’s oil resources.

BALANCE OF POWER
The international arena is said to be a jungle and, as such, any nation would attack others if it could get away with doing so. Therefore, it beholds every nation to strive to be as powerful as its neighbors. It is not your neighbors good will that prevents them from attacking you but your ability to deter them, defeat them at war, or at least match their aggression with aggression that prevents them from attacking you.

Balance of power is said to be what prevents wars between nations. If you were able to match your neighbor’s attack he would not attack you. In this light, the former USSR and USA were matched in power. They had mutually assured ability to destroy each other (MAD).

In international politics, therefore, every nation strives to be as strong as its neighbors, if it wants to be independent for long. It tries to match its neighbor’s military, political and economic power.

If nation A builds a weapon, nation B must strive to build it, for if it does not, nation A has advantage over it and could lunch an attack on it, defeat it and write history to make it seem it was provocateur.

The winner writes history and its lies are taken as the truth. To avoid that from happening, nation B must strive to match the powers of its neighbors.

It is, therefore, balance of power that prevents war and establishes peace, what there is of it, in the international arena.

Boris the drunk Yeltsin of Russia allowed his country’s military to go to pots. Russia is now a third world country. The moment the drunkard permitted his nation’s military to decay, its opponent, the other superpower, suddenly acts as Mr. good guy. It pretends to be helping Russia, when actually it is disarming it.

Because Russia is disarmed, the remaining superpower now feels that it has hegemony over the world and that no one can do anything to stop it from doing whatever it wants to do. Like a proud cowboy, it runs around the world swaggering and boasting of its power to clobber any one who dares challenge it. These days, it runs around the world removing governments it does not like.

POLITICAL REALISM VERSUS POLITICAL IDEALISM

That is to say that the demise of Soviet power has enabled America to translate the world into its plaything. Where there is no balance of power, political realists tells us that there is bound to be instability in the international arena, that wars would be more frequent and common.

Political idealists would like to believe that human nature is loving, and would not attack innocent persons.

Political realists agree with Hobbes that man is a predatory animal and will kill and eat you, take your property and or enslave you and blame you for doing what he did. You see, white Americans, predatory animals, killed Indians and took their lands and enslaved black people. They then have the audacity to blame those they oppressed. They come up with all sorts of rationalizations for their aggression. They claim that Indians and blacks are inferior to them. No, these people are not inferior to them. What theses defeated people are, are idealists who do not fight back and expect their opponent to treat them nicely. They have idealistic views that human beings are nice. Unbeknown to them, white Americans tend to have antisocial personalities and would attack and kill you at any time, if you are not defending yourself. And they would do so coolly and calmly and show no remorse or guilt from doing so.

From the perspective of real politics in international politics, the nation must strive to be powerful and checkmate its neighbors’ aggression. A nation must be powerful if it wants to be a free nation and if it wants to have control over its territory for long.

MUTUAL SPYING/DIPLOMACY

Nations are said to be perpetually trying to do each other in. They spy on each other, trying to understand their military, political and economic capability. Where they see others as becoming more powerful than them, they try to reduce their power through diplomatic means and if that fails attack them.

Thus, the USA uses carrot and stick in international diplomacy. At this point, for example, it is using carrot, trying to bribe North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons. If that fails, it clobbers North Korea with its stick. (The two countries had war in 1950 and North Korea bloodied America’s nose. Therefore, America is not particularly looking forward to a repeat of that humiliating show. But if it could get China to be neutral, the bully goes to work and clobbers Korea. So far, China plays coy. For one thing, China does not want America close to its borders, so it is not about to allow the great beast to attack North Korea. Thus, the great bully bides its time, waiting for an appropriate opportunity to destroy North Korea.)

Theodore Roosevelt said it all: in international politics carry carrot, dangle it before your enemy, but if he refuses to bit, and become subservient to you, hit him hard with your club and subdue him to serving you. As he sees it, we are like Neanderthals and are still welding clubs over each other’s heads, except that that club is now nuclear weapons.

PERMANENT ENEMIES, TEMPORARY ALLIES

In international politics, each nation assumes that others are its enemies. There are only temporary alliances but permanent enemies. The person who was your ally today may become your bitter enemy tomorrow.

The USA and the USSR were allies during the Second World War but thereafter-bitter enemies. Boris the Drunk’s destruction of his country has made the USA seem friendly towards Russia, but should Putin the Short decide to be Putin the Tall and rattle America, the lid is off and the competition begins all over.

Because there are no permanent friends but only temporary allies and permanent enemies in international relations, nations must be very careful how they relate to one another. They could instigate war by a careless behavior. For example, all nations desire to be prestigious. Man is a proud and vain animal. He is motivated by prestige. He wants his neighbors to see him as very important.

A nation is a group of men. As such, they translate their individual psychology to collective psychology. Nations, as men, want to be seen as prestigious. America wants to be seemed as the most important nation on earth. If you collude with its delusion and see it as its paranoia wants to be seen, it feels fine, but the moment you see it for what it is, a scared little boy, a clown really, it feels angry at you and may even attack you. The great bully does not reason anything out; it just attacks and destroys. These people are Neanderthals.

Nations must treat other nations respectfully if they do not want to provoke wars. Thus, you look at America’s current president, a moron, and pretend that he is an intelligent man. If you dared see him for what he is, a dullard, you would insult Americans. To avenge their hurt vanity, they could attack and destroy you.

To avoid such conflicts, international relations evolved a language of its own called diplomacy, the art of telling lies and making them seem truthful. Thus, a nation like Britain whose prime minister is probably a political genius pretends to see the president of America, a moron, as its superior and kowtows to him and goes to war with him in Iraq. Why? America is very powerful and you never know when a resurgent Germany may attack Britain and you might need American GIs to defend you.

(A powerful Germany makes France and Britain literally pee in their pants, for they know that Germany could knock them out in a few weeks of war. The German is the world’s most wonderful fighting machine. He is not even human. So Europe needs America to intimidate Germany. Western Europeans can handle the Russian bear, what they really fear is Germany. They must humor the great cowboy and pretend that they respect him when they have great contempt for him.)

EMBASSIES

In international relations, diplomacy rules the world. Failure to find ways to relate well to others, you might alienate them and risk their vengeance. Thus, it came to pass that each country has a diplomatic mission in others, as they have in it. These diplomats spy on their host countries and do what they can to foster their nations national interests in their host countries.

Diplomatic missions are dens of spies where folks are given different titles to mask their real jobs. The commercial attaché, for example, could be no other person than the local KGB or CIA operative spying on the host country. The military, commercial, education and other attaches have one thing in common: figure out the host country’s military, political and economic strength and prepare your own country on how to deal with it.

Nations agree to allow each other’s bags, (so-called diplomatic bag) to go through their borders un-searched. In these bags, reports are written about host countries, reports that if made public there could be war. For example, Western diplomats interacted with Emeka Ojukwu and concluded that he was narcissistic and vain, and could become dictatorial if given the opportunity. They saw him as a little bedroom napoleon. Thus they worked to undermine him. But in public, they pretended to support Biafra. They smiled at Ojukwu while trying cut his throat. Their reports were carried out of Biafera through the diplomatic bag. These diplomats assessed the Igbos as very bright and hard working but tempestuous and political unsophisticated and not really ready to rule themselves yet. On the other hand, these diplomats talked to Yakubu Gowon and appreciated his genuine humility. The man is probably one of the most loving men Nigeria has produced. Unfortunately, he did not have much education and, like poorly educated men, felt somewhat inferior to the Oxford-educated playboy called Ojukwu.

FOREIGN SERVICE OFFICERS AND COUNSELLORS

The relevant point is that diplomats are in their host countries to gather information about them. Generally, there are two types of people who work in diplomatic missions. Foreign service officers and counselors. Foreign service officers are usually recruited from the nation’s best schools: those who attended their countries best elementary, secondary and university schools. In England, they probably went to Eaton, Harrow, Rugby, Winchester (secondary schools), Oxford and Cambridge. In America, they probably went to Andover (secondary school), Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. They probably have master’s degree in political science, history and or law degree. These are the best of the best, the cream de la cream of their society. They probably are tall, preferably six feet and more, athletic, fluent in many languages and well cultured. They are their countries best and represent their countries abroad.

You do not hire poorly educated, short, and ugly persons to represent you overseas. Most countries recruit FSOs when they are young, usually under age 26, and train them in the Foreign Service and post them overseas. They then rotate through many countries. In their host countries, they mix with the ruling elite and write reports on them and send their reports home through the infamous diplomatic bag. If a head of state, for example, likes women; that are fully noted. This weakness is exploited. Local spying agents might arrange for a few high-class hookers to dally with such head of state and through these expensive whores get information they need from him.

The FSOs progress to become their countries Charge de affairs, the head of the embassy. Some even become ambassadors, although ambassadorial appointments are political rather than merit based.

The counselors tend to be from the middle classes and their job is to give Visas to those wishing to go to their home country. These folks also coordinate other activities at the embassy and consular offices, such as talk to businessmen about business opportunities in their home country, trying to get them to go invest there. If an Asian has a few million dollars to give to Canada, Canada literally begs him o come o Canada. Canada, more or less, sells its Visa and Asians are buying. The Country is literally being taken over by Asians. If in Vancouver, you would think that you are in Hong Kong.

Each country has diplomatic missions in other countries and has consular missions scattered throughout the country to give Visas to those wishing to go to its home countries.

Diplomatic missions see themselves as on the front line of the war to protect their countries national interests. They do whatever they could to sell their country and make others see them as nice, even if they are killers. American diplomats in Africa manage to make America seem like heaven. Heaven indeed. America is nothing short of hell for Africans and blacks in general. Most blacks in America perform menial jobs. But when America shows black Americans they show the handful that seem to have glorified nigger jobs to the world and the world thinks that blacks are treated as human beings in the country. It is the job of diplomats to sell their countries in a positive light and America does an excellent job of self-marketing and self-promotion.

NIGERIA AND INTERNATIONAL POLITICS

I have briefly summarized international relations in general; now let us see how it applies to Nigeria. Nigeria is an artificial construct. It was put together by the British to serve British interests. The various ethnic groups living in Nigeria were at different stages of political development when they were placed together into one country. The Hausas had attained feudal level of political development. Hausa land was probably where France was before the French revolution. The Sultan of Sokoto was probably equivalent to the French King.

Yorubas were not unified as one nation but had fairly well organized groups. Oyo was probably equivalent to German princedoms before Bismarck unified Germany. Benin, though small had a powerful Oba and state.

Igbos were at the most rudimentary level of political development. They were where Greece was 2500 years ago, during the age of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. The Igbos did not have a unified Igbo state; each town governed itself in the most rudimentary manner.

The British agglomerated these very different groups into one country. The whole thing had all the makings for disaster. And disaster we had.

Upon independence in 1960, Nigerians embarked on governing themselves. Since they were at different levels of socio political development, they saw things from different lights. Igbos wanted unmitigated freedom, bothering on wildness, really. The Hausas were used to social discipline and faired better. The various Yoruba states were always at war with each other and, therefore, Yorubas had learned how to relate carefully to each other. Yoruba’s are the most diplomatic Nigerians. In fact, they sought of engage in diplomatic mission of dividing and conquering. They incite the impetuous Igbos to fight with the Hausas.

The vain Igbo likes to fancy himself superior to others and imagines himself superior to Hausas, when, in fact, he isn’t even as developed as Hausas. The Yoruba gets the Igbo and Hausa to go at each other, sits back and enjoy them destroy each other. The Yoruba picks up the pieces from the warring parties. In fact, they seem to benefit most from the chaos that is Nigeria. It is as if they deliberately create the chaos and anarchy so as to benefit from it.

The Igbo lacks in diplomacy. You can literally sell the boastful Igbo, stroke his infantile ego, make him feel important and sell him to the Arabs or to the Americans.

For our present purposes, the various groups in Nigeria have differences which internal diplomacy could smooth out. But instead of learning to be subtle, the Igbos seem bent on self-destruction and always put other people down, as if they are asking to be attacked by others.

They do not seem to understand that all human beings are vain; vanity is not the exclusive property of Igbos. If you insult other people, they will attack and kill you. The killing of Igbos in the North of Nigeria was largely attributable to Igbos misguided arrogance.

The Hausa man is probably the kindest of all human beings. That he attacks Igbos means that Igbos did something to him.

Nigeria has need for developing internal diplomatic relationship among the various peoples. But in as much as Nigeria is a nation state and is the unit in the chess game called international relationships, let me concentrate on Nigeria’s relationships with its neighbors and the international community.

In 1960, the departing colonialists from Belgium created a volatile situation in the Congo. The Congo exploded. Lumumba, Kasavubu, Joseph Tsombe, Katanga. I will not review the situation in the Congo here. Suffice it to say that the country degenerated into mayhem of mutual killing. The United Nations intervened. At that time, the Nigerian army was well trained by the British and was, therefore, selected for peacekeeping duties in the Congo.

That was Nigeria’s first spat with international conflicts. The Nigerian leaders themselves had no clue as to the nature of the conflict in the Congo; the political chess game being played out in the Congo involved Belgium, France, Britain, and USA. Congo is a huge real estate with a lot of minerals and the Western boys wanted chaos and anarchy so as to offer them the opportunity to steal the country’s resources, and they did, big time.

When finally some sort of peace came to the Congo, the shrewd sergeant Joseph Desire Mobutu came to power. Through him, the West robbed the Congo clean. Of course, they looked the other way as the high way robber called Desire took his country’s wealth and carted it to Europe. As far as diplomatic behavior is concerned, Nigeria did not even know what was going on in the Congo.

After the Congo came Tanganyika and Nigerian troops were sent there. Here, again Nigerian leaders had no clue as to what the Western big boys in Washington, London, Paris etc were doing.

Eventually, Julius Nyerere got a grip on himself and managed to unify Tangayika and Zanzibar. Were it not for his socialism, nyerere would have gone down in history as an astute politician.

Then Nigeria herself exploded in 1966. The ethnic groups needed diplomatic relationships to obtain peace among them. But diplomacy went missing. Igbos, true to character, boasted, always putting Hausas down, Hausas, a warrior people took, to killing Igbos.

In 1964, the Yorubas slid back to their traditional wars with each other, and fought one another rather than unify. Chaos reigned everywhere.

In 1966 Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu and his fellow coup plotters killed Hausa and Yoruba leaders and spared Igbo leaders. That was the greatest blunder one could make in politics. If you must kill, kill indiscriminately. Igbo leaders heads should have rolled. As it was, the coup seemed like a sectional affair.

Aguiyi Ironsi, the drunk, out maneuvered Nzeogwu. This man had no clue as to the problem with Nigeria. He did not understand the need to balance ethnic politics. Reportedly, he wanted to transform Nigeria into a unitary form of government, with himself as the ruler, of course. He miscalculated and his body was found in the gutter.

Gowon, a very gentle, humble and peaceful man, a man more suited for the ministry, rather than politics, he would have made a good Catholic priest, ended up the leader of Nigeria.

At first Ojukwu seemed to out maneuver Gowon at the first Aburi conference. Later, Gowon recognized that it would not be good if under his watch Nigeria split up, so he surrounded himself with more mature advisers like Awolowo and got a grip on events. He launched an attack on Ojukwu and eventually deafeated Ojukwu.

Gowon should have divided Nigeria into twenty states, instead of twelve, each state a tribe, at least the major tribes: Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, Edo, Ijaw, Efik, Tivi, Urhobo states, and placed a collection of smaller tribes into the balance of states. If he had done that, he would have solved the structural problem that is still unresolved in Nigeria’s politics. Nigeria needs to be a federation where each state is composed of an ethnic group.

For our present purposes, Gowon managed to keep Nigeria one. That is good. We do not need the balkanization of already small African countries. We need a unified Africa. By and by, black Africa will be one Africa Federation, with each of the four hundred or so tribes in Africa constituting a state.

Gowon was chased out of office in 1975. Mutala Mohammed and Obassanjo took over.

Things heated up in Angola, South West Africa, Mozambique and other Portuguese territories. For the first time, the Nigerian government got a clue as to what international politics was all about. It recognized the need to support the freedom fighters in those troubled countries. Nigeria’s foreign policy became one that supported the liberation of all Africa.

Nigeria contributed money and time to the anti colonial struggles in Rhodesia, South Africa and elsewhere. One must commend our leaders for beginning to appreciate the nature of politics on the world arena. All of Africa has one fate and we must fight along each other. Nigeria’s foreign policy was admirable to the extent that it supported Africa’s freedom fighters.

Nearer home, Nigeria made some efforts to get the countries of West Africa to come together in an economic community, along the line of the European economic community (now European Union). Nigeria worked hard for the establishment of ECOWAS.

It is difficult to know what ECOWAS’s real purpose is? But that was a good start. Clearly, we need a unified African economy. In fact, we need an Africa free trade zone, so that goods move between countries without paying duties.

We need to do away with Visa requirements so that all black Africans can travel and in fact live in any part of Africa that they desired to. Our forefathers used to travel all over Africa and I see no reason why we should be prevented from visiting all parts of Africa.

I know that in this century, Africa will become one county, an Africa federation with a central government and state governments. This is inevitable and no rational person should fight the inevitable.

In the meantime, Nigeria has a regional foreign policy that tries to unite West Africa into an economic, if not political community. The latest half-hearted effort is the desire to have a common currency in West Africa. Good, but why not a unified African currency, the Afrik? (Afrik would give the Euro and dollar a run for their monies.)

Nigeria’s role in the international arena is very negligible. Out side Africa, very few persons know that Nigeria even exists. As far as I know, Nigeria does not contribute in a significant manner to international issues.

What is Nigeria’s position on the USA running wild in the Middle East, for example? North Korea?

May be it is as well that Nigeria delimits herself to African politics and leaves international politics for the time being?

ASSESSMENT

Clearly Nigeria is not a powerhouse in international politics. The international arena is an arena of power politics. You take part in this arena if you have a powerful military, supported by a vibrant economy. Nigeria’s economy is nonexistent. We all know that the country is prevented from collapse by her oil money. Without oil money, Nigeria could disintegrate and join Africa’s other failed states.

In his book, Africans, Ali Masrui talked about the collapse of imported political institutions in Africa. He suggested that out of this collapse that indigenous African institutions would rise up. By indigenous African institutions he does not mean the Africa that existed before the white man came to Africa.

Pre-colonial Africa is dead and gone. Let the dead bury the dead. There is no need for nostalgia over the past.

What is going to happen is that a synthesis of the old and new will take place. Old Africa will mix with imported institutions from Europe and Asia and something uniquely authentic African would come into being. Africa is not Europe or America or Asia, but Africa. The new Africa will still be Africa but incorporate what from other countries work in Africa.

I have pointed out the need to have each African tribe be a state and since there are about four hundred African tribes that would mean four hundred states in Africa. They would operate like American states. Then there would be a central government. The central government would have control over military and foreign affairs and coordinates trade but otherwise have a free enterprise economy (actually mixed economy, since the states must provide free education, medical service etc to all Africans).

In the context of Nigeria, what needs to be done is to divide the country into realistic states, twenty states. These would then rule themselves as in America and abide by the central government’s rule in foreign and military affairs.

Nigeria’s foreign policy ought to be working towards a unified Africa. She is in a position to do this. But to do it she must be respectable. To be looked up to one must have integrity. Nigeria must reduce corruption if it wants other African countries to respect and accept its leadership. As it is, to be a Nigerian is to be seen as a criminal, a 419 scammer. This must stop.

CONCLUSION

Nigeria is new in the international politics game. She has not even understood the nature of international politics as a place where sharks bite and eat each other. She does not seem to realize that it is literally at war with Western powers. But in time, she would learn the nature of real politics and give up her present idealistic, sentimental nonsense. She must learn to pursue her self-interests, become powerful militarily, economically and politically.

Ultimately, Nigeria must seek nuclear weapons. Why not? Why should white men have such weapons and not black men? Of course, these weapons are awful. But as long as one group of human beings possesses them others must. If not, the possessor will bully those who do not have them. At any rate, given what we know about history, every weapon ever invented by man eventually becomes available to all people. At present, the West has these weapons, but sooner or later all countries will possess them.

Perhaps, we can eliminate the weapons of mass destruction from everywhere in the world? How I wish that that were possible. The genii are out of the bottle. Knowledge of nuclear weapons will be increasing, not diminishing.

In about a hundred years time, most college students will know how to construct nuclear weapons. Then the fun starts as the weak use them on the powerful. Of course, all can learn to respect all and work for all.

It is only love for all that would prevent mankind from mutual annihilation. In the meantime, man being what he is, self-centered and selfish, Africans must look after African interests.

Ozodi Thomas Osuji

Ozodi@africainstituteseattle.org

October 20,2005

Next lecture, #17, Nigeria and International Organizations, October 21.