The point is: a sales person will rarely find fault with his/her advertising pitch or marketing skill; any default would naturally be attributed to one of the aforementioned grounds. That’s a sales person’s world. Sadly though it bears similarity with the leadership style of Nigerian political leaders.

For instance, in Canada even permanent residency holders enjoy a variety of rights and privileges that are utopia to ordinary Nigerian citizens. Permanent residents of Canada enjoy a good measure of respect from custom and immigration officials of other countries. This is because Canada works hard and has earned a place of pride in the comity of nations.

Ostensibly to achieve similar status for Nigerian passport holders, the Umaru Yar Adua government proclaimed a foreign policy of ‘citizen diplomacy’. This marks a shift from the ‘Africa as centrepiece of Nigeria’s foreign policy’ paradigm that was adopted shortly after independence.

By citizen diplomacy, Nigeria’s current leaders want the world to respect Nigerians as citizens of the globe when our leaders don’t accord us the rights of citizenship at home. Shouldn’t charity begin at home?

So what is citizen diplomacy when the citizen’s vote does not count; when he resides in a police state in which humans were recently summarily executed in police custody for wrongly or rightly expressing a religious opinion? How is a citizen whose tax naira does not provide security of people and properties, good roads, drinkable water and constant electricity supply expected to appreciate ‘citizen diplomacy’?

A member of the Nigerian Diaspora who has sought the services of a Nigerian Embassy would readily attest to the sloppiness of its officials; will have noticed the obsoleteness of its working tools, and much more its shamefully neglected infrastructure. What do we know to be the policy framework for the actualisation of citizen diplomacy? Are Nigerians even aware that our Foreign Affairs Ministry does not have a website of its own in this technology age? Just google to confirm this unspeakable anomaly in this time and age.

Ojo Maduekwe is probably preoccupied with internal wrangling between himself and ambassadors (per General Oluwole Rotimi’s episode) than to notice that his government’s corrupt reputation precedes and largely determines the international community’s perspective on the nation. International relations experts say a nation’s domestic policy should shape its foreign policy. What is our domestic policy and record on citizens’ rights?

No shadowy foreign policy initiative of this government would obliterate the subjection of the green passport holders to ugly treatment overseas. Foreign governments will only regard us highly when our government treats us as important stakeholders in this collective enterprise that is Nigeria. It is a bad signal that the president who championed ‘citizen diplomacy’ jetted out to Brazil while over 700 lives were lost and corpses littered the streets of Maiduguri, Bauchi and environs after clashes with security agents. How much really is a Nigerian life worth?

China’s President Hu Jintao had to abandon the G8 meeting held in Italy when riots in the Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, on July 15, caused the death of 200 Uighurs in a country of 1.34 billion citizens! That reaction highlights the value of a Chinese life.

As if this haphazard ‘citizen diplomacy’ was not enough insult to our sensibility, this government tapped Dora Nkem Akunyili, riding on her NAFDAC fame, to spearhead a white elephant ‘rebranding’ exercise. Without belittling her professional capability, this government charged a pharmacist with the task of telling us to change our ways as Nigerians as if the failures of this country are essentially down to our character flaws.

But shall we not tell our leaders that the kettle should not call the pot black? We know where they are headed with this rebranding abracadabra. When the dust settles, though we won’t have been provided with new clothes, ‘new chassis’ cars, gleaming houses with security and food on our tables, we would be told how much billions of dollars have been expended on rebranding us. And the sycophants in our midst would sing praises and bid for contracts to place adverts in the media celebrating this official 419!

As it is with sales persons, so it is with our leaders. They don’t ever see problems with their administrative inefficiencies. It’s always the fault of Nigerians. To them, we are too impatient to wait for their political promises to materialise, after almost completing their constitutional term! They think we desire too much albeit how naturally blessed we are as a nation; the same blessings they misappropriate!

We want no citizen diplomacy; we demand citizen democracy. We are on the search for rebranded leaders for Nigeria. And we shall not stop until our natural freedom to elect leaders of our choosing, based on our conscience and conviction, is restored back to us. May God help anyone standing on our path.

Idowu Ohioze, Alberta, Canada

Robot  # 1 | 22.09.2009 07:04

...Read the full article.