Last September, Polish president, Mr. Andezej Duda visited Abuja, the first in the 60 years of diplomatic relations between Nigeria and Poland. He told his host, president Muhammadu Buhari that “we have vast experiences in the field of agriculture, biotechnology, ecology, climate protection, and production of eco – friendly food. We believe that the cooperation and the visit will contribute towards repairing those economic chains which were interrupted or ever broken as a result of war and the Covid – 19 pandemic”.
Poland which serves as a notorious conduit for funneling weapons and even mercenaries to Ukraine in Kyiv’s war with Russia is a top hawk within the European Union (EU) and the Western military alliance, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), seeking more desperately, a frontal confrontation with Russia, not minding the devastating consequence not only for the region but also the rest of the world.
Against the background of the promise to scale up “economic cooperation with Nigeria, recent statistics and figures on the performance of the polish economy shows that Warsaw need to fend for itself before it can look out to contribute meaningfully in a bilateral of or multilateral cooperation with others. World Bank in its report last October, noted that “Poland’s economic growth is expected to slow down in 2023 more markedly than initially expected because the ongoing war in Ukraine has dimmed prospects of a post-pandemic economic recovery across Europe”.
The report noted that the Polish economy may grow at 1.6% next year (2023) when compared to 4.0% anticipated in 2022 and 3.6% forecasted for 2023. With a dramatic 2.3% drop in activity, the worst in European Union, Poland is on the cusp of at least a technical recession. Some analysts suspect that the sharper slowdown is owned to the lower contribution of change in inventories which shot up in the 1st quarter, as companies built stocks ahead of crises that is currently unfolding.
With the economy tightening and energy crises looming amidst chilling winter, the Polish “leader sojourn in Nigeria can be better understood. According to Mr. Duda, Nigeria is wealthy, noting he wants an increase of the supplies from Nigeria to Poland of natural gas and oil. He underscored the primacy of energy security.
Talking about food security and other diverse areas of economic cooperation, like agriculture, Poland is considerably constrained by the seeming internal disarticulation of its economy. And as the Polish economy tapers into recession, any prospects of meaningful and serious economic cooperation with Nigeria is very doubtful except that Warsaw only wishes for Nigeria to provide it with the energy cover to fuel its adrenalin to further its Russo-phobia policy, that further destabilizes the region and heighten global tension even to the point of prospective nuclear confrontations.
While in Abuja, President Duda played the Russia-Phobia card claiming “We are helping Ukrainians, because we are absolutely sure that Ukraine was invaded without any reason whatsoever and due to the Imperial ambition and colonial ambition of Russia…” Having herself provided a lee way for NATO’s prospective hostile encirclement of Russia, as a non – issue despite Moscow’s repeated warnings for its national security to be taken into account.
Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine is nothing of U.S invasion of Iraq, a distant country with no identifiable or obvious security threat to Washington. Ukraine’s radical nationalist rulers unfurled an earth-scorched policy of depriving ethnic Russians of their language, culture and even recklessly offered herself as a cannon fodder. To suggest that Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine is unprovoked is to stand reason and clear facts on its head. As Ukraine has been fronted in the NATO’s proxy war with Russia, Nigeria, unlike the radical nationalist rulers in Kyiv leading their country down the road of damnation, would continue to engage broadly with the rest of the world. Poland economic currently contracting and on a down turn is not in any position for a robust bilateral engagement and Warsaw has a duty to put its house in order, rein in, its excessive Russo-phobia and play a moderating role in its region before offering itself as a worthy and serious partner for Nigeria or Africa.
Odoh is a foreign affairs analyst based in Abuja
