President Buhari put this principle to immedi­ate practice when he assumed office. On his fourth day in office after inauguration, he embarked on his foreign policy, visiting this country’s imme­diate neighbours, Niger, Chad and Cameroon, which was stood down at the last minute due to other pressing international engagements. It is important that we have a government at this time that realizes how country’s domestic progress is linked to how it conducts its foreign policy.
Students of international relations will not however not give full marks to President Buhari in attempting to reset our relationships with the French-speaking neighbouring countries with­out talking to their metropolitan headquarters in Paris.Without meaning to belittle the flag and independence of the countries that surround us, history teaches that the safest, quickest and cost-effective way to an enduring relationship with them is the path that takes you through Paris. If President Buhari should therefore reshape the texture and contours of the relationship with France, Nigeria can alter the sub-regional dy­namic to everyone’s benefit.
Against this background, the oncoming three-day State visit to France by President Mu­hammadu Buhari starting on Monday should raise expectations of economic and strategic an­nouncements.
It is equally important that the French Presi­dent, Francois Holland, who is one of the better performing leaders of Europe had been among the very early world leaders to call and congratu­late our President upon his historic victory in the elections. In that conversation, he said two things that were noteworthy. One, he offered the friendship and partnership of France in President Buhari’s plan to rid Nigeria of terrorism and re­build the country economically. His pronounce­ment that relations between our two countries are “strategic” has equally excited the Nigerian for­eign policy establishment. It points to Nigeria’s opportunity.
In my layman’s understanding of the interna­tionalization process, a strategic relationship be­tween two countries presupposes that although they will keep their separate identities, the two states in that kind of relationship are ready to share almost everything. The second thing Presi­dent Hollande said to our then President-elect was, “come to France, and let us host to you to a bilateral discussion.” From here, Hollande, Ger­many’s Angela Merkel, Britain’s David Cam­eron and Obama encouraged President Buhari to, on getting into office put together a “wish list” of his government and country and table it at the “G7” meeting in German early in June, with a promise to come to the aid of our country.
In dealing with Europe as an entity, most for­eign policy experts will recommend that you stay focused on France and Germany. The United Kingdom, through this country’s longest-stand­ing partner, is not the one you can bet on because of their own ambivalence towards Europe. With one leg in and one leg out, the English are still debating among themselves whether to stay in Europe as a community or get out.
It is equally fundamental that France’s invest­ment on the African continent is the largest in Nigeria. And it is still growing. French interests here are strongly represented by such compa­nies as Total, ELF, LaFarge, Societe-General, SCOAand so on.
The best outcome for Nigeria during this visit should reflect favourably on key priories of the Buhari administration which are security, econ­omy and the war against corruption. An added one would be the strengthening of cultural co­operation, that should hopefully be beneficial to both states. We as a country are in the midst of our French-Speaking siblings in Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Benin bordering this country to the north, east and west. The attitude of our au­thorities to this ground reality has not been very good so far. Past efforts to infuse the French lan­guage into our school and communications sys­tems have largely fallen flat. The zeal with which French language was taught in the 60s and 70s in our schools is no longer there. This willful negli­gence, if I might call it one, has cost our trained and highly mobile manpower a lot of opportuni­ties in the countries that surround us. Niger for in­stance, has oil and it is the world’s second largest source of uranium. The currency utilized in these countries is a regional currency,itself backed by France.
For their part, France is itself concerned about the world-wide decline of French as a spoken lan­guage against the rise of English language. It will be a good outcome for France to support Nigeria to re-establish French in our institutions of learn­ing and as a language of doing business.
Next is the issue of the diversification of the economy and the government’s plan to place emphasis on agriculture and mining as a way of moving from the singular dependence on oil as the mainstay of the economy. To create jobs and wealth, this country needs a massive inflow of foreign direct investment in agriculture, mining and manufacturing. The French have been loyal to Nigeria and have stayed back in, even when some of our dearer partners have decided to sell their assets and go away. This is an area the new administration hopes to build upon and it is clear from the structure of the bilateral discussions as well as the membership of the delegation are re­flective of this desire.
Lastly and more importantly is the issue of security in the country and the Lake Chad basin area.
Since his assumption of office, President Bu­hari has squared up to the threat of Boko Haram terrorism with a single-minded determination. Without waiting for the envisaged foreign sup­port and assistance, Boko Haram is near resolu­tion. If thy were correctly reported in their press conference a few days ago, the military has in­deed declared victory in the war. But the world still needs to come together to help this country manage its fallout.
In this regard, President Hollande needs to make his friends and allies in the G7 to sharpen their response and keep their promise of assis­tance for which President Buhari was requested to present a wish list. So far, there is evidence of that support in the areas of training and the sharing of intelligence but beyond these, it is hard to say that we are getting commensurate responses to the high hopes that we harbored in dealing with the war and reconstruction. Such promises especially as regards to access to mili­tary hardware and the reconstruction of damaged infrastructure, donated or paid for should be pur­sued so that the victory over terror in our region is not a temporary one but one that will usher in permanent peace, tranquility and wealth for our beleaguered populations and the part of the con­tinent they occupy.