Nigeria’s President Jonathan: A successful outing at UN? – By Emeka Chiakwelu

Posted by admin Articles, Columnists, Emeka Chiakwelu, Goodluck Jonathan (2010-present), NNP Columnists, Presidency, United Nations Monday, October 10th, 2011

By Emeka Chiakwelu, NNP, October 10, 2011 – President Jonathan optimistic address to the United Nations Assembly can
be a powerful message of positive re-branding and assurance to the world
community.

This is not the first time that President Jonathan has addressed United
Nations General Assembly. But his recent outing at the at the 66th United
Nations General Assembly, UN Headquarters, New York was quite important
after the Boko Haram’s United Nations building bombing at Abuja. Many keen
political observers and analysts have quite for a while have seen
terrorism and terrorist acts accelerating in Nigeria, but they were not
probably fazed by rising momentum being that it was localized and within
the country’s border without international implications. But with the
recent attacked on the building of United Nations in Nigeria at Abuja has
proven that the bombing might be local but its implication is beyond the
confines of the country. There are political and economic ramifications
that may come with it especially with the attraction of foreign investors
and capitals.

This is why it was important that the President Jonathan utilized his
address at United Nations Assembly to assure the whole world, that Nigeria
is stepping up and Nigeria is up to the challenge of restraining,
controlling and defeating the embolden Boko Haram with its destructive
warfare on the polity, stability and wellbeing of the country. The world
economic actors and participators must be updated on the safety of the
country and making them to understand that Nigeria is a safe destination
for their capitals and investments. And President Jonathan address did
accomplish and convey strength, endurance and safety of the country. That
is good news to the world.

The most important responsibility of a government is its ability to
protect life and property, and Nigerian president must let the whole world
know that prospective investments and present investments in Nigeria are
safe and well protected. One thing Nigeria must not do to is to allow
anything to disrupt its growing economy and retards its progressive and
buoyant economy. Therefore it is necessary that a confidence building
strategy and assurance must go beyond the address at United Nations and
rebranding must be continued to make investors and capitalists to see
Nigeria as a safe haven for investment, an economic growth landscape with
affirmative yields.

President Jonathan in his address at United Nations General Assembly said,
“Over the past few months, we in Nigeria have faced an upsurge of
terrorist attacks in parts of our country. Only recently, the UN Building
in Abuja housing several UN Agencies was the target of an atrocious
terrorist attack which left several dead. On behalf of the Government and
people of Nigeria, I like to convey my sincere condolences to the families
of the victims and to the entire UN family for this barbaric and heinous
attack against those who have dedicated their lives to helping others.”

These are powerful words and that conveyed the country’s collective
sympathy and condolence to the affected people around the world. The next
suitable words to say following that is Nigeria’s readiness to protect
lives and investments in the country are unshakeable.

Nigeria must do the public relation of using every opportunity it has to
sell herself and rebrand her image as a place for tourism, investments and
education. The way a nation perceives herself is probably the way other
nations look at her. Moreover, it shows that Nigeria does have the
capability to be a secured and a safe nation for capitalism. This may look
as something simplistic but it does go a long way in assuring trading
partners and nations where a nation priorities lies.

The undeniable implication of terrorism is it does threaten a nation’s way
of life; subsequently Nigerians are now becoming to paying more attention
to themselves and their environments. The easy going way of life and
carefree of the country has been altered because of terrorism. The
concerns can be felt by seriousness of the country security apparatus to
combat this new rising phenomenon. And without doubt it takes time,
vigilance and resources to stand up to the new challenge. But while the
country is at that, Nigeria must let the world know that business,
commercialism, trading are still fertile, safe and profitable in the
country

President Jonathan made a powerful impression to the world community with
the below utterances when he emphasized the fundamental application of
good governance for furthering diplomatic and democratic standings:

“I also believe that in addition to other traditional tools of preventive
diplomacy, democracy and good governance can be particularly important in
building a just, equitable and inclusive society. By focusing on
mediation as a tool for conflict prevention, we are able to address the
real triggers of conflict, without which we cannot achieve sustainable
solutions.

However, for the world to move from a culture of response after conflict
to that of a culture of prevention, the international community must
muster the political will to promote preventive diplomacy, in particular
through mediation. This will necessarily entail re-dedicating greater
human and financial resources to institutions and mechanisms that already
exist within and outside the UN system for conflict prevention and
resolution.

Going forward, I should like to propose the establishment, under the
Secretary-General’s Office, a Conflict Mediation Commission, to be
charged, among others, with the collation of information on conflict
situations across the world, identify the dramatis personae and develop
appropriate strategies for initiating resolution of such conflicts. The
Commission will also develop rules of engagement, including sanctions
which would apply to those who may obstruct efforts to resolve conflicts
peacefully.”

Finally, President Jonathan coming to United Nations headquarter in New
York at this point in the life of the country is crucial, for it becomes
an opportunity to reassure the world community especially the country’s
trading and diplomatic partners on the readiness of Nigeria to do good and
to maintain her standing as an African leader. Nigeria must dispel the
false assertion that it is a ‘failed’ nation as some observers chose to
characterize the country. To judge the president on his impact and
impression on the global village at United Nations with his address, one
can equitably give him a excellent grade but now again, only time will
tell.

Emeka Chiakwelu is the Principal Policy Strategist at Afripol
Organization. Africa Political and Economic Strategic Center (Afripol) is
foremost a public policy center whose fundamental objective is to broaden
the parameters of public policy debates in Africa. To advocate, promote
and encourage free enterprise, democracy, sustainable green environment,
human rights, conflict resolutions, transparency and probity in Africa.
http://afripol.org/ [email protected]

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