Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Aminu Wali, has said that the generous commitments Nigeria has made to ensure international peace and stability, in its 54 years as a nation, should be made to benefit its national interest.
In this interview with correspondents while the minister hosted the former Commonwealth Secretary General, Emeka Anyaoku, to a meeting in Abuja, he also stressed that Nigeria has continued to collaborate with many countries to tackle the menace of insurgency and the fight against the Ebola virus disease.
INNOCENT ODOH was there.
What is your overall assessment of Nigeria’s participation in the ongoing 69th United Nations General Assembly meeting (UNGA)?
At UNGA the statement delivered by our President sent the right message to the international community on what our position is, and what we expect to be. Of course the high point of it is particularly the fight against Ebola virus disease. The President announced to the international community that there is no single case of Ebola in Nigeria, that we have been able to contain it. We attained that achievement with our own local strategy which was internally developed. Of course we have already discussed with a number of countries in our sub-region and we are prepared to extend support in their fight and lend some of our experience to those countries to fight the scourge of Ebola.
Secondly we sent a message to the international community particularly the Security Council meeting, which President Obama chaired and of course Nigeria is a member of the Security Council. Our President made a very powerful statement in terms of our own current situation, telling the international community that insurgency and terrorism is no longer a Nigerian scourge, but a threat to international peace and security.
Therefore with this singular action, we have moved the question of terrorism, which is being focused on Nigeria, now to the international arena, it is no longer the preserve of Nigeria, it is not just a Nigerian problem, but an international problem. By the debate of the Security Council, a resolution was adopted, which Nigeria is a part of and Nigeria’s contribution in drafting and sponsoring that resolution has shown that we have come of age as a country.
The passing of that resolution against international terrorism is part of Nigeria’s achievement. We have made our own input in all other aspects. Before we left Nigeria for the UNGA, we had articulated our positions, some of which have already been attended to as the General Assembly goes on. So we have achieved a lot within a short period of time and we want to achieve a lot more before the end of the General Assembly in December.
Nigeria is said to be discussing with Russia to procure arms considering the fact that the US and the West are said not to be forthcoming with the country’s request for arms to fight insurgency. How far is the discussion with Russia?
Let me correct this impression that the Americans and the West have turned us down, we are still talking and we are still getting some support from our traditional allies but at the same time, our foreign policy does not limit us to discussing with one side and not talking with the other side. Nigeria has always maintained a balanced policy and therefore we have been talking to the Americans, the British, the Europeans and the Chinese.
Of course we cannot afford to ignore talking to the Russians, so we are also talking to the Russians and we are also asking for support from any quarter that can help us contain insurgency. This is our situation and who ever and where ever he may come from, that can give us support and help us in any way, we will be prepared to talk to that group or that country, so that we can achieve our set goal to bring peace and security to our country.
There is no price high enough for us to pay for our peace and security regardless of what anybody may say, our national interest is the first and foremost.
Have you got any firm commitments from the people you have been talking with?
We have had a number of commitments in terms of technical support and advice and we have achieved a lot in terms of intelligence gathering and dissemination. Certainly that is one of the key factors of winning insurgency and terrorism. Information and intelligence is important. We have reached out to a number of countries not even the traditional ones. In the Middle East for example we have discussed with a number of Arab countries and also with the Chinese about modalities of cooperation in terms of facing the insurgency. So this is an ongoing thing until we get rid of insurgency in our country.
Nigeria would be 54 tomorrow (Wednesday) and in 54 years of diplomacy, Nigeria has made generous commitments to the international community in terms of peace keeping operations. Do you think Nigeria has benefited from its generous commitments?
We have reaped in terms of our profile going up but in terms of tangible benefits, we are yet to work out modalities where we can now translate those gestures that we have been making into reality, to serve as solid and physical achievements in terms of our benefits from those countries.
Obviously we have been over generous particularly to our brothers and sisters in Africa but at the same time we certainly need to reap more from our relations with those countries. In diplomacy it is said that if I give more, my intension and my policy are to make sure that I get back as much as I can in terms of return on investments.
