For some time, Chatham House – the London-based British public affairs advocacy think tank has been in the news, following the parade of Nigerian political figures who have serious stakes in the forthcoming electoral exercise, on its platform. Their mission has been to exploit the valued attention of its global audience.
Appearing in no chronological order here have been Professor Mahmoud Yaqoub, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as well as Bola Tinubu, Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso who are the respective presidential candidates of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Labour Party (LP) and the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP). Incidentally, Abubakar Atiku of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which is the main opposition political party has reportedly not indicated if and when he will be disposed to join the parade at Chatham House.
In some sense, however, appearing at Chatham House seem to serve as one of the credentials for winning elections in Nigeria. Hence, ever since the parade commenced, the country’s public space has been inundated with reactions which range across varied interpretations of the speeches by the respective political leaders.
London-based Chatham House hosts the Royal Society of International Affairs (RSIA) and is named after a former British Prime Minister – William Pitt, the First Earl of Chatham who once lived there long before 1903, when the institute was established. Since its establishment, the institute has been serving as a platform for facilitating robust debate and information exchange among designated stakeholders in British and global affairs. Its primary selling point is its independence from any formal control by the British Government as its funding comes primarily from subscriptions by its members comprising corporate bodies and individuals spread across the world and presently number over 3,000 individuals more than 250 well-appointed corporate bodies.
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The organization claims to be an independent institute that provides thought leadership on key issues that ‘defined the 20th century’. According to its claim, it also was involved in the drama of fostering independence of African countries by providing a platform for dialogue throughout the season of decolonization. However, a more insightful appraisal of its role in global and African affairs since 1903, betrays much of its contributions in sustaining the colonial mindset of the British establishment with respect to exploiting the African continent – firstly as colonies, and later as members of the Commonwealth of nations. However against the back drop of the global reach, to appear on its podium qualifies as a valued credential for any individual any time any day. In the same vein the politics of Nigeria also qualifies as a worthy engagement for Chatham House.
The foregoing notwithstanding, the recent parade draws a parallel with the ongoing ethnocentric scramble by the ruling global powers to fixate the mind of Africa’s leadership community, on the hoax that all good things for the continent must come from beyond its borders. Much as the Chatham House may be close to the Nigerian experience given the historical ties between Britain and this country, lessons from contemporary global geopolitics dictate that caution should be applied even with the Chatham type of parade.
For instance there is the disturbing annual parade of African Heads of State to China under the auspices of the China Africa Cooperation Forum in the course of which all that is heard afterwards are the speeches of the Chinese President. The Chinese who feel out-scored in the colonial partitioning of Africa during the Berlin Conference of 1885-86, are now coming with a sense of vengeance to completely take over the African continent. They have even set up their own police stations in some countries including Nigeria where they have one in Benin City. Presently they claim that the Chinese Police stations on African soil are for monitoring their dissident nationals abroad. But who can guarantee that someday Nigerians will not bear the brunt of Chinese Police brutality. There is also the Africa France Summit which on the surface seems a tame collaborative venture but in looking deeper one sees signs of tendencies to recolonize Africa.
Going back to the profile of the RSIA, much as they offer a platform for independent, robust scrutiny of issues, such processes are not devoid of value judgment. While the globalisation of its network also guarantees the absence of parochial considerations and focus on the issues that matter, the guarantee of the ethnocentric interests of the British establishment cannot be ruled out.
Such a situation raises the question of whether any Nigerian institution can also rise to that level of integrity of attracting global acclaim as trust worthy in independence of enterprise. For clarification, Nigeria has a complement of institutions that ordinarily should have been counted as credible enough to provide the unbiased platforms for the kind of dialogue which our leaders are parading to Chatham House to engage in. However given the deep seated tendency of favouritism and nepotism in the country’s political fabric, they suffer a credibility crisis following suspicions of such earlier mentioned ills, by their operators. Yet it is often overlooked that the foreign institutions we easily run to in order to have our voices heard are even more guilty of biases even as theirs are officially skewed in the interest of their nations.
This is where the sections of the Nigerian media establishment who are providing the platforms for Independent and all inclusive dialogue for politicians deserve commendation. Even if they may not boast of global prominence like Chatham House, they provide exclusively, the local Nigerian flavour which matters for the forthcoming polls. After all, the polls will not be held in London or anywhere else, but Nigeria.
That is why they – our local platforms matter more than Chatham House.
