President's Letter/ Nigeria’s 2023 elections, another east-west confrontation

Phone: +234-7062738241 Email: africansustainable@africansusdev.org

AfricanSustainableDevelopmentNetwork

Letter from ASDN president

==================

Nigeria’s 2023 elections, another east-west confrontation conclusion

===============

--President's Letter, July 2023

... It has never paid for any people to live like a city without

walls …

No back row power where it occupies

As any familiar with China’s colonial history such as in Vietnam would know, China is never a back row power where it occupies.

…

That China has ascended significantly in Nigeria’s affairs in especially the last 12years, but exceptionally so in the just ended 8-year presidency of Gen Buhari, is evident in virtually all parameters, including among the hugest of commercial contracts and financings. No country would want to lose those and the leverage they come with.

The west has already shown this. And China is no less ambitious, in custom and influence.

Hardest work ahead

An election is a means to an end. And there is never a disinterested external arbitre in another country’s election.

Everyone who engaged in the 2023 elections, brazenly or by stealth, be it as an external or an internal party, had an interest to pursue in their lead-up. And each has an interest to protect upon the elections’ culmination.

…

For starters, some of the monies thrown about at party primaries and on elections eve most certainly point to external financiers. And those may include some of the most faceless, who in turn may include not just no-gooders but also the outright malignant in terms of the sovereignty of Nigeria, the integrity of its borders and the across-board wellbeing of its people.

…

For those other Nigerians still nursing the dream of a united, strong Nigeria, their work is threefold:

One. Trace and publicly identify the sources of primaries and campaign finances of all the elected

Two. Identify and publicly track all the elected officers’ external inclinations and ties, however purportedly private or personal.

Three. Take interest in contracts and the overall public procurement apparatus. These include export credits and investment guarantees.

Picking up the pieces: Conclusion

However credentialled and patriotic the elected, the forces at work externally, known and the stealth, can only be counterweighted by a proactive, engaged and eagle-eyed commonwealth of Nigeria.

The absence of such has had its consequence: Few countries in history have defied potentials, promise and pre-colonial prowess as Nigeria in its rapid post-colonial descent.

Nigerians seeking a turnaround of their country and their genuine external well wishers should keep in mind that:

¤ It has never paid for any people to live like a city without walls.

¤ Colonialism never ended. It just exchanged as cloak gunpowder for charm and ready cash.

The one thing all Nigerians across the divides, at home or abroad, should know though is that their country, as now is, is the epitome of why the black man stays down anywhere in the world, whatever may be the extraneous causes.

Rose Umoren

=============---------------====

President, African Sustainable Development Network (ASDN)

Rose Umoren is a financial journalist, business research provider and a certified management consultant; and lives in Nigeria.

[full letter, part one]

[full letter, part two]

========================================

Past letters

Someone must take responsibility for Africa's failed economic policies

G20 should adopt a binding natural resources code

Land, natural resources agreements should be public documents

Why can’t they be freed?