The lose of Fatima Kyari Mohammeds bid for the coveted African Union (AU) post of Commissioner for Peace and Security did not receive much attention within the Nigerian media space. It was rather, the misdemeanor of Nigerian Foreign Ministry officials which allegedly cost Nigeria the strategic post that received lavish treatment in the media.The contest which took place in far away Adis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, which hosts the headquarters of the AU was not the personal ambition of Fatima. Rather it was Nigerias integrity as a nation- state that was at stake. However, as it turned out Fatima lost and Nigeria lost. And this was due to no fault of the suave security expert.In the build up to the election, Fatima Kyari Mohammed had rolled out a beautiful manifesto that would have ordinarily fetched her the coveted post.Having being competitively selected as Nigerias candidate, Fatima pledged to build on the achievements of her predecessor if elected as consistency was required to make a success of the continents peace and security. Relying on her experience with the Economic Community of West African States( ECOWAS) where she worked for over a decade on organizational development, peace and security, Fatima pledged to work with partners to create African Peace and Security Architecture ( APSA) while transforming the continents conflicts in the most affected areas to peace building andConflict prevention. She promised the AU a lot more but when the vote was taken, Fatima lost to Smail Chergui of Algeria as the Commissioner for Peace and Security.At the Summit, Chads Foreign Minister, Moussa Faki was elected Chairman of the. AU Commission to replace Nkosazana Dlamini- Zuma, the South African, who became the first woman ever to lead the 54-member Continental organization.A few weeks after the Adis Ababa diplomatic debacle, emerging information point to Nigeria as being responsible for the lost of Fatima. Sources at the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs legend that a retired Permanent Secretary and a Director had conspired to write to the Secretariat of the AU indicating that Nigeria was no longer fielding a candidate for the post whereas Nigeria had presented a strong candidate and was already canvassing support among member- states. The ensuing confusion is said to weighed against Fatima Mohammed who was seen contesting on her credentials and not as the official candidate of her country. And since votes at such international organizations usually go on the basis of official candidates of member states Nigeria was officially recognized to have withdrawn her candidature in favour of the Algerian candidate, Chergui. An enraged Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Onyema had penultimate week commissioned an investigation in to the circumstances that led to Nigerias loss. The panel will specifically examine the roles of the senior diplomats who allegedly got compromised to manipulate the process against Nigeria.While the nation awaits the findings of the investigation, there is an urgent need for the country to re- examine her diplomatic engagements especially representation at International Organizations to avoid a repeat of the Adis Ababa incident.Since independence, Nigeria has played prominent roles in major international animations such as the United Nations, Commonwealth Organization, AU and ECOWAS, After several decades of membership of these bodies, Nigeria should by now have a clear policy of diplomatic engagement with these organizations. If that was the case, the country would have been saved the embarrassment that attended the loss of Fatima Mohammed at the AU Summit.Whereas Nigeria has occupied top positions at the UN, including Presidency of the General Assembly, several times Chairman of ECOWAS, the Country hardly had a good outing at the AU in terms of holding senior positions in the organizations structure.The Adis Ababa incident was therefore, particularly painful in the sense that right from the formation of its precursor, the Organization of African Unity( OAU), the country has never held top position at the continental body. It was therefore a rare opportunity that was painfully frittered.As painful as it was Fatima Kyari Mohammed exhibited a great sense of Pan- Africanism by congratulating Chergui, the winner of the post.Nigeria to overhaul her diplomacy to bring it tune with he present realities of projection on the African continent and in the international system. No country can successfully drive a progressive foreign policy with diplomatic personnel that suffer huge patriotic deficit. There is no better time than now to inject new blood into the nations diplomatic system.
Click here to read full news..
