Nigeria will seek to become a member of the BRICS group of nations within the next two years as part of a new foreign policy push to have its voice heard in important global organizations.
The West African nation will join every group that is open as long as the intentions are good, well-meaning and clearly defined, Minister of Foreign Affairs Yusuf Tuggar said in an interview. “Nigeria has come of age to decide for itself who her partners should be and where they should be.
While attending the summit, Nigerian Vice President, Kashim Shettima, said ‘We want a partnership that provides opportunities for all to engage in trade, prosperity and shared progress with no marginalization based on geography, race and legitimate sovereign affiliations.’ He also emphasized the need for regional organizations and the creation of a new model of international collaboration.
His comments align with BRICS being a group hell-bent on challenging Western imperialism and seeking to change the status quo. Also, to bring a change to the lack of consideration and respect of the Western world to the Global South, and to create a political cum economic force from the Global South that will be reckoned with.
Within BRICS, there is the world’s largest autocracy (China) and the world’s largest democracy (India). No matter your sins, so long as you can carry the cross and spread the message of challenging Western imperialism, then you can apply for membership.
Take a look at India’s Kashmir clampdown, Russia’s tamrums in Ukraine, China’s ethnic suppression of minority Uyghurs and Saudi Arabia’s austere past all because of divergent views one relishion and culture, further marred by the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a known Saudi dissident, journalist and columnist for The Washington Post and Middle East Eye who is believed to have been murdered by the Saudi Arabian government.
In the UAE, gender-based discrimination and domestic violence against women is of concern with 1,027 cases of domestic violence against women reported for the year 2018, with the government trying to stamp out the ugly trend. For years now, South Africa’s economic turmoil largely affecting the country’s historically disadvantaged groups has not receded and the country’s government has remained complicit in the face of senior government officials’ perceived support to xenophobic groups in the country, doing almost nothing to combat waves of xenophobic attacks.
Can Ethiopia be free of wars? For decades Ethiopia have been battered by constant unending wars, which is even a disqualifying factor for NATO alliance membership, a Western Alliance which BRICS shadow rivals. How about Egypt’s past as a hotbed for Islamic fanatical uprisings and its political dispute with Ethiopia over the Grand Renaissance dam or its banking of the Nile River?
India cannot and does not want to stand up to the ‘I am bigger than thou’ attitudes of China and its bigger brother diplomatic actions in any political gathering. In Iran all throughout the country, there was a clerical rule rebellion spearheaded by women and youths. High food costs accelerated the economy’s protracted decline. Foreign indignation was provoked by the violent suppression of dissenting voices by Iranian security forces. And the chance of reaching a nuclear agreement with the US seemed increasingly remote. So what have you? Just come with your sins and we will wash you to be as white as snow as long as we can stand together against a common enemy. In BRICS, no member tries to appear or behave like a saint like Western countries, so why was Nigeria not invited?
NIGERIA’S FOREIGN POLICY
A new signee, Ethiopia, is not pro-West and even has a track record of Western defiance. Ethiopia is closer to China militarily and economically, and both countries have been known to rub ideologies together. Meanwhile, Ethiopia was kicked out of the African Growth and Opportunity Act in January 2022 by the US for its war in Tigray. Ethiopia is more integrated into China’s Belt and Road Initiative than Nigeria despite our warm and cordial relationship with the Chinese and Ethiopia is and has been an ardent follower of the Soviet Union.
While Nigeria seeks to shy away from pre and post-Soviet related affairs, it has not tried in any way to diplomatically support Russian narratives at the United Nations since the war in Ukraine. Nigeria has not been supportive of the Russians diplomatically at the UN, sometimes abstaining or even voting against Russia.
Nigeria’s economy, despite being larger than Ethiopia’s has been unduly battered due to harsh International Monetary Fund and World Bank loan conditions which have led to capsizing of the Naira caused in part due to economic mistreatment. At this point, Nigerian leaders are too knee-deep in chasing after Western leaders to stand up to them and the economy is in shambles. Nigeria’s foreign reserves position is lower than the market capitalization of three top South African banks.
Nigeria is so pro-West that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had to send his Vice President, Kashim Shettima, to the Russian African Leaders Summit while he jetted out to Italy on a familiarization tour of EU bloc states. In Nigeria, no president has stood on the rostrum of power without going to kiss and dine with Western leaders first.
As seen, all the current BRICS member states have a mild to hard anti-Western flavoured foreign policy stance and South Africa is no exception. South Africa’s ruling African National Congress have been bitten hard and is overtly hostile to the West, caused in part by harsh historical realities and experiences during the apartheid rule in which America and its alliance were complicit and numb with only the East Bloc nations, China and USSR and a handful of radical African countries offering support to the anti-apartheid struggle at the time.
Nigeria has not supported Russian views since the war in Ukraine began, although the USSR helped stamp down the Biafran secession during the Nigerian Civil War when the West stood arms akimbo, offering only minimal support to Federal Troops. Now Russia wants Nigerian diplomatic support at the UN to help it wither away the barrage of sanctions hurled at them and Nigeria is stammering. Who would want such an untrustworthy political partner?
WOULD NIGERIA WANT TO TRADE AWAY FROM KING DOLLAR?
The summit has asked member states’ finance ministers and central bank governors to work on the issue of local currencies, payment instruments and platforms away from the Western-led SWIFT system and report back at the next summit which Russia itself will be hosting. Can Nigeria shun the West, look them in the eyes and partner with BRICS to dismantle the dollar as a global currency and usher in an alternative currency?