It is nearly three years since the United States threw a welcome mat down for President Muhammadu Buhari.
That was in July 2015, less than two months after the new Nigeria leader took office. At the Oval Office, President Barack Obama celebrated Buhari as a man who had ascended to power “with a reputation for integrity and a very clear agenda.
“We’re looking forward to hearing more about his plans and how the United States can partner with Nigeria so that Nigeria ends up being an anchor not only of prosperity and stability in the [western] part of the continent, but can also be an outstanding role model for developing countries around the world.”
He said he looked forward to seeing Buhari put his team together “so that we can do everything that we can to help him succeed and help the people of Nigeria succeed. Because if they’re successful and doing well, that will have a ripple effect not only in West Africa, but throughout the world.”
Bathing and basking in all the attention and encomiums, President Buhari expressed gratitude for the pre-election pressure on Nigeria authorities by foreign powers, including the United States, to ensure that the elections were free, fair and credible.
Buhari said he made the visit because the US had made it “absolutely clear before the election” it was prepared to help Nigeria with the challenges of security, economy, employment and combating corruption.
At the time, President Buhari was thought to be carefully scouring the world for the brightest Nigerian minds to take up positions in his cabinet. That process would eventually eat up a whopping one-eighth of his tenure, only to terminate in the anti-climax of appointments he could have made on the same day he took office.
Nonetheless, Buhari met again with Obama at the United Nations in New York in September 2016. At their bilateral meeting, the US leader said they had discussed additional ways of making progress not only in destroying Boko Haram, but also to make sure that the people in this region were able to recover from the devastation of its occupation.
“That includes making sure that humanitarian aid is getting in,” Obama said. “There is real danger of famine and hardship in these areas because farmers were not able to grow crops and engage in traditional agricultural practices.”
And then Obama chose his words particularly carefully. “As the President is trying to stamp out corruption, to recover external funds that may have been illegally obtained and are sitting in bank accounts around the world, as he continues to work to make sure that the security forces inside of Nigeria are abiding by professional and human rights standards, what we’ve pledged is, is that we will partner in any way that we can to be helpful.”
It is unclear if what he meant was clear to the Nigerian delegation. Mr. Obama ended with some more expertly-chosen words. “[Buhari is] going to be President longer than I am,” he said, laughing. “But that gives us a sense of urgency to make sure that we’ve done everything we can to put in place the framework for cooperation and partnership for many years to come.”
President Obama left office about five months later, those words hanging in the air, and Nigeria having failed to take advantage. She had failed to seize the moment or follow up on the invitation. Not only did Buhari not send an ambassador for the rest of Obama’s tenure, he did not have one for almost all of Donald Trump’s first year.
But it is to Washington DC to which Mr. Buhari returns tomorrow, at the invitation of Mr. Trump, who has dismissed Nigeria, among other African countries, as a “sh*thole country.
Buhari returns with none of the rock-star celebrity of 2015. Gone is his fabled reputation as a man of iron-fisted integrity who was going to restore sanity to the Nigerian economy, including through a Lee Kwan-Yew style onslaught on corruption.
I give Buhari credit: some progress has been made in containing Boko Haram. But he will arrive at the White House tomorrow considerably diminished in stature. It is widely-documented now that his government has frequently misrepresented how much progress it has made.
Far from being defeated, Boko Haram continues to maim, kill and kidnap. Worse, the government has been atrocious in implementing the humanitarian aid about which Obama warned, the victims of the militancy often becoming victims of the greed of government officials-highlighted by Buhari friend and former Secretary to the Government Babachir Lawal-who are not brought to justice.
The US delegation will have all those reports in front of them.
Buhari will be arriving to a different US, one that in its 2017 Country Report on Human Rights published only 10 days ago, said of his administration that “Massive, widespread, and pervasive corruption affected all levels of government and the security services,” and that it has not implemented the rule of law effectively.
And as if to provide contemporary evidence of Buhari’s contempt for the rule of law and division of powers, he will be arriving in Washington trailed by the stench of his authorization of the purchase of Tucano helicopters from the US at nearly half a billion dollars, without the knowledge of the National Assembly. Buhari made the authorization months ago but informed the Assembly only last week after the story had broken.
Buhari will arrive at the White House with his hosts far more informed about the growing insecurity in the country, particularly concerning well-armed cattle herdsmen. His government is in chaos over it, his Minister of Defence Mansur Dan-Ali blaming it on the herdsmen, Police boss Ibrahim Idris saying they are mere communal clashes, and Buhari himself blaming it on late Libyan leader Muammar Ghaddafi.
He will arrive with his government in crisis ethically, Minister of Finance Kemi Adeosun reported to have secretly paid N10 billion to National Assembly leaders as part of an illegal schema of N50billion “constituency projects.”
But more immediately, he will arrive at the White House not with a spritely, man-about-Washington top diplomat, but with 83-year old Sylvanus Nsofor, an appointment that says a lot about Buhari’s limited ambition and perspective.
Nsofor had hardly taken his seat in Washington a few months ago when Trump made his famous dismissal of African countries. Following an outcry, he has since attempted to mend fences, sending a letter to the African Union saying he “profoundly respects” his country’s partnership with Africa.
The truth is that even if he had apologized, it would still have made no difference in the context of Nigeria given the hollowness of Buhari’s performance, which confirms Trump’s point.
Nonetheless, given that Trump appears willing to do more on the Boko Haram front, Buhari may be able to achieve more. That the US is also taking the challenge of China in Africa more seriously bodes well for Nigeria.
What remains to be seen is whether Buhari can turn his government around, given his predisposition to cynical options throughout his first term.
• Twitter: @SonalaOlumhense
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