By Paul Onomuakpokpo
At a time Donald Trump
is grappling with an increasing low approval rating at home and abroad,
Nigerians really made his day last Monday. That was the day that the United
States (U.S.) president made a call to his Nigerian counterpart Muhammadu
Buhari who is on a sick leave in London
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| *Buhari |
It is outside our
remit here to probe whether the presidency grovelled to have that call made to
Buhari, or whether the call was made at all. We limit ourselves to the notion
that Nigerians were elated that their president was not vegetative after all;
he was mentally alert to hold a conversation with Trump. Again, they were
excited because this call indicated the high acceptability the president enjoys
before the leader of the greatest nation on earth. If Trump who is incurably
narcissistic could call Buhari, that means the latter has some value to add to
the world, so goes the argument ad infinitum.
Yet we must not
forget: the excitement that the call has generated harks back to the elation of
a plebeian who was shown a little favour by a medieval potentate. For, there is
an unequal relationship between the West and Africa .
It is a relationship in which the West constructs Africa
as its other. Thus when the West courts Africa ,
it is not for the good of the latter. It is either to keep the African in a
subservient position or to remould him or her to be able to take the role of a
less significant party. Remember, Shakespeare’s Prospero boasts that he endows
Caliban with the power of language. But unlike Caliban, our leaders neither
seek to explode this myth nor use whatever they have apparently got from the
West to destabilise it to their own advantage. They rather internalise the myth
of their benightedness and the notion that it is only through the West that
African nations can become aware of their inherent potential and realise it.
This is why they often seek developmental aid from Western institutions.
But the stark reality is that the interactions between Africa
and the West do not produce any positive result for the former. Are we now
saying that we should be isolationist in a globalised world? No! Rather, we
should bring our own values to the table of globalisation. We should not allow
the values of the West to define ours. For what the West wants to do is to make
us to accept their values and keep us obligated. In most cases, these values
are not useful to us. This was why the U.S.
under President Barack Obama wanted Nigeria
