11:18:00 am
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 |
| Nnenna Elendu-Ukeje |
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?
