Hon. Nnenna Elendu-Ukeje is the Chairperson, House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs. In this interview, the lawmaker who represents Bende Federal Constituency in Abia State, speaks with Victor Oluwasegun on the lessons Nigeria should learn from the victory of President Elect Donald Trump in the recent elections in the United States of America
How would you assess Donald Trump’s election viz-a-viz the expectation of Nigerians?
The United States elections were threshold elections, they were defining elections. For some people they were existential. And the rest of the world believed that the result of the elections will have a direct impact on their own country considering, of course, the central and leadership roles that America plays in global affairs. The American elections have shown that democracy, in spite of the outcomes, is what it is. That the minority will have their say and the majority will have their way, and in spite of the outcome of a democratic process, it is the process that legitimizes the results. And to that end, shocking as the outcomes were to a lot of people, that is democracy at play and of course the American democratic system threw up the President of the United States, Donald Trump. Now, of course, waking up from that, there were a lot of reactions, people were aghast. People were shocked. But I think that over and beyond that, there is a need for us to start to look at the areas of deeper collaborations between Nigeria and the United States. It’s on record that Nigeria and the United States are very close trading partners, we are strategic partners, we’re partners in the fight against insurgency, the counterterrorism war; we are partners on rolling back on diseases, polio, and malaria. Of course, there is also the Light up Africa Project. We’re partners. The Nigeria – American Bi- National Commission is a platform of collaboration on all areas from trade to good governance, to counter terrorism to anti- trafficking engagement on all sorts of laws. We’re engaged on all sorts of platforms. And I do not believe that a Trump Presidency is going to change what is institutional. It was President Barrack Obama that said Africa needs strong institutions and not strong men. And what it is that holds up the United States Democracy; it is the fact that they have very strong institutions. Now, we cannot over personalise the policies of government with regards to who sits in the White House. To that end, I believe that certain agreements that have been entered into by say, Nigeria for instance and United States, because we’re both strategic partners and friends, that those agreements are going to be relevant today because the agreement are with institutions rather than men.
Nigeria is in the vice grip of terrorist with Boko Haram mutating into factions and some pledging allegiance to ISIS, and of course there is Al Shabab and Al -Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. So, here we have a hydra-headed Boko Haram and with somebody in the White House who says he’s going to tackle terrorism, home grown terrorism, terrorism around the world, with the way that he’s thinking, I think can only be good news for Nigeria in our collaborations with the world against terrorism.
Of course there are other concerns, there are also trade agreements. I also believe that aside from that, every other thing that President-elect Donald Trump spoke about, like repealing Obamacare, are things that are within America. They’re not things that have an international platform and that really wouldn’t affect us as a country.
The character of the Congress has also changed, as a parliamentarian in Nigeria, what adjustment needs to be done in terms of inter-parliamentary relations?
I believe that governments are dynamic; I believe that Parliaments and Congresses are dynamic. And I believe that in spite of what is thrown up by them, Nigeria is also formulating a foreign policy; we are not going to change our foreign policy because of one election. But Nigeria is going to position herself in such a way that it strategically engages with whatever comes at us. Now, foreign policy is about personal self interest and engaging with other countries. We have engaged over time, we’ve deepened friendships, we’ve deepened relationships. And the inter- parliamentary as far as the position of Congress is concerned, the issues that bind us together will still be the same issues – global peace, trade, security around the world, improved engagements between both our countries, the gender issues, sustainable development goals, the laws, the treaties that our countries have gone into, the anti- terrorism treaties, the Child Rights Act, the people living with disabilities and so on and so forth.
Now, in spite of who is president, the truth of the matter is that these issues will be discussed with us as a country defending our own positions, and them of course putting forth their own position.
But the important thing is that I believe in a world increasingly without borders. The things that bind us together are the things like global peace, human rights, climate change, the girl child, migration issues and I believe these issues are going to be tackled in spite of who’s in the White House.
The President-elect has threatened to deport illegal immigrants, how do you think this will affect us in terms of remittances and Nigerians in America?
The creative word here is “illegal immigrant” and that is your question. Now, even the government of President Barrack Obama deported illegal immigrants. Every country has a right to make laws that govern the way they run their country. When a person is not known to the law, when you’re illegal, it means for instance, you rob the state of taxes; you are not part of the system. And even the UK, Nigeria recently re-signed her memorandum of understanding on migration with the UK. Nigeria as a country has been known to deport people who are living out of status. When people live out of status, certain types of laws will catch up with them. What we can do as a country as we have renegotiated our memorandum of migration with the UK is something we can also speak to when next we meet at the Bi-National Conference. As a politician, I believe there are certain things that are said during campaign that when you come upon the reality of governance, it’s a little difficult for you to carry out governance with any form of arbitrariness. I believe they will be stronger on migration and immigration, but I do not believe there will be arbitrariness to deporting three million people outside the memorandum of migration that has been done with the United States.
What about the fears by Nigerians that a Trump administration might see a drastic reduction in the number of visas given to Nigerians?
I don’t want to conjecture that this is likely to happen. What I believe is that when he gets inaugurated that Presidency is going to react to present day realities. I do not believe in the arbitrariness of the knee-jerk reaction we seem to relate to the utterances during the campaign trail. For instance, the president elect, Donald Trump, said he was going to repeal Obamacare, now he said he was not going to repeal Obamacare.
America is like a bastion of equality; Hillary’s loss is like an anti-climax. Do you think this is setback for gender activism in Nigeria?
The United States has about twelve percent, I think, of women in Congress. The Scandinavian countries have much higher number. The United States with affirmative action records, we’ve always emulated. Of course as a woman, a lot of women wanted to see a woman in the White House, because we felt it could give fillip to the gender issue. We felt it would have given hope to a lot of women. To that end, I would say it is very disappointing. It would have been a shocker; it would have given hope to a lot of women. But it didn’t happen. I hope it doesn’t make us lose hope. But I believe that we will continue to fight.
How do you assess the eight years of Obama administration? Did he really leave black people better in America? Did he really impact on Africa?
With regard to the Obama administration and the African engagement, a lot of people come out and the consensus is that Obama did not leave a strong footprint in Africa. But I also think that our expectation sometimes is a little too optimistic. Let us not forget that Presidents are defined by the times that they are. A lot of people would say he didn’t have much engagement in Africa. As far as Nigeria was concerned, there was engagement with Nigeria, there was collaboration with Nigeria in the rolling back diseases, on the counter- terrorism in Nigeria. On the concerns about Trump Presidency, we just may be pleasantly surprised at what the reality may be at the end of the day.
What should be Nigeria’s take away from Trump’s Victory?
I think that like you said, it’s a rejigging of the world order. I believe that when you look at what’s happening with Brexit, even elections in India, with Modi, you see that there is a change against establishment. You find that a lot of people are suddenly voting against establishment. Some people have argued, even in Nigeria, that it was a vote against the establishment not necessarily a vote for the candidate and that is what we see happening around the world. And I think that people are just probably tired of the status quo, people probably want there to be a rejigging of the world order where the people in government are so far removed from the people they govern. And a lot of people are starting to say that the divide between the first world and the third world, even within the first world, the rich and the poor, the divide is so wide. And I think it has thrown up a lot of anger, fear, and resentment for establishment as they know it, and so people are just rebelling against establishment. I think that our takeaway as a country, especially as people who are in leadership, is that we must start to listen to the voices of the people at whose pleasure we serve. We must start to create the establishment that speaks to the concerns and agitations of the people. We must start to understand, listen to the agitations of the people in every sphere, so that when we present ourselves to serve the people, they will see that indeed, we understand their plight.
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