Few Nigerian leaders get the chance to show mettle on the world stage. Even fewer turn the stage into a statement. The latter calls for congratulations for Udom Emmanuel, governor of Akwa Ibom State.
He had soared to London on invitation to serve as a guest speaker for a keynote address at one of the most feisty and august assemblies of the world and a monument to free speech and democracy: The House of Commons.
Gov. Emmanuel, who would later earn the honour of political governor of the year in Bristow, spoke to the British lawmakers on the nexus of peace and trade.
It is telling that he chose that topic. In a world where the economy is clutching at straws, he did not choose better ears and a better platform.
For one, the two nations, Britain and Nigeria, were grasping at sanity in their exchange rates. In Britain, in the aftermath of its prime minister Liz Struss’ economic policy woes, its fabled pound sterling was not stellar but was flagging against the dollar. In Nigeria, the naira had been at a perpetual down spiral.
Two, the United Kingdom was beginning for the first time to admit that its divorce with Europe by way of BREXIT was taking a big toll on its international commerce and the quality of life of its citizens.
In Nigeria, oil prices had risen, and we have not been able to take advantage of the boon. Rather the boon was a curse for us. While others like Venezuela and the Arab states swelled on the cake, we started to cascade.
Liz Truss is bowing out, but the market turmoil still shakes Nigeria’s former colonial metropolis and a once-imperial master that boasted that it flaunted an empire on which the “sun will never set.”
While Governor Emmanuel spoke eloquently on the value of development in Africa, he stressed on what he called internal peace. His speech was at once a challenge and an exhortation. Hear him, “If we say the world is a global village, freedom of labour should follow suit and not be inhibited.”
The question of a global village defies BREXIT, but the irony is that Britain has not shunned globalisation. It says it is embracing it but on its own terms. Those terms have been problematic, and that is why its economy is in the poor straits that shows some of the features and fractures of turbulent economies and politics. In seven weeks, it has had three prime ministers.
The world-famous Economist magazine described it as Britaly, a term that compares the island power with Italy because of the similarity of both countries’ political quicksand and their grappling with coalition and ego problems.
Hence, Governor Emmanuel’s characterisation of the global peace was on the money. He was also chiding the west as a whole. Not far away from London, Europe is boiling in the war between Russia and Ukraine, and it has thrown up the price of fuel and the whole continent is facing the prospect of a winter of discontent.
President Putin has turned off its gas faucet, but Europe is defiant. It believes the war is unjust and it must make common cause with Ukraine against a bully nation. Here Europe cannot trade because it cannot have peace.
So, Gov. Emmanuel’s speech is as much a call for cooperation as it is a moral rebuke. The paradox is that the United Kingdom ushered in the modern era of global trade when its empire flourished. It did not flourish because it loved peace, but because it embraced war. It made war on Africa and conquered territory after territory. They carted away slaves and later planted colonies on the continent. This led to the trade in the Americas. They enforced trade through arms. They eventually made peace by violence.
Today, the environment is different for most of the world. But the focus of Governor Emmanuel was Africa, and the need for the continent to earn trade through peace. Hence, he harped on internal peace. “What we need first is internal peace,” he enthused. “Once we have that, we can then talk of peace.”
In Nigeria, internal peace is an encumbrance to trade and prosperity. The surge of Boko Haram has paralysed the northeast. In spite of modest gains, the area is not a sea of tranquillity. All over the northwest the bandit is holding sway. Even the United States and United Kingdom recently sounded a security advisory on the nation’s capital on the imminence of an onslaught. No one can invest in any of the areas where foreigners can be kidnapped and investments plundered at will.
In the southeast of the country, Mondays are out-of-work days. No one has put a clear statistic on how much the nation and the region loses every first work-day of the week. But no one can even invest where gunmen run riot.
The next point he stressed is capacity development. Wealth comes from human innovation and that is the gem of labour. In the global village, we do not enjoy free flow of labour. At the bottom of this is racism. That alone, though, is not the factor. Hence, he noted, “Our number one goal is Africa is capacity building.” But it is contingent on another variable: “The developed nations must help us through collaboration and transfer of technology.”
He said this because Africa has a lot of mineral – 30 percent of the world’s haul – and other natural resources. They cannot be tapped for good without expertise. That is why he said, “unemployment is not the issue, but capacity building.” We need round pegs in round holes.
He knows about this given his own exploits as governor in the past seven years. Is it the airline, Ibom Air, now known as the country’s leading carrier? Is it the coconut factory, or is it the swarm of infrastructure work altering the landscape of the state?
He was speaking as a man in the arena, working the work. Hence, he talked the talk to one of the world’s most influential audience. He spoke. They listened.
•Edozien writes from London
