I will stone Obama if he visits Nigeria, Nobel Laurette Soyinka
Nigerian
President Musa Yar Adua is hopeful that US President Barack Obama’s
visit to Ghana would bring the challenges faced by the
continent closer home to the US President. But he expressed
disappointment that Obama chooses to ignore Nigeria, insiders in
Abuja seat of power said at the weekend.
[Ghana is a small outpost of stability, democracy and civil society
in an often-volatile part of the world]
But many Nigerians are happy by the decision of the US government to
avoid Abuja.
“If Obama decides to grace Nigeria with his presence, I will stone
him. The message he is sending by going to Ghana is so obvious, is
so brilliant that he must not render it flawed by coming to Nigeria
any time soon,” said Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka to Thisday news
daily at an Art Exhibition at the Italian Embassy, Abuja.
Soyinka appluaded Obama’s decision to visit Ghana ahead of Nigeria
in his first trip to Africa as a wise decision.
Publisher of Ovation magazine, Dele Momodu, in his weekly column in
Thisday castigated the Nigerian leadership blaminbg them for Obama’s
choice of Accra over Abuja for his firts visit to sub-Saharan
Africa.
“The first Black American President has chosen to snub Africa’s
biggest nation. Not because he hates us, but he needed to find a
symbolic way of telling our leaders how useless and distasteful they
have become.... Who wants to shake hands with leaders who have only
succeeded in wasting the vast resources of a people so endowed?”
In
reaction, the Special Adviser to President Umaru Yar Adua on Foreign
Affairs, Ambassador Jibrin Chinade also told Thisday “Nigeria
has no problem at all with Obama visiting Ghana because Ghana is not
only a friendly country but also a member of ECOWAS. Which country
to visit and when is entirely the prerogative of a country and
Nigeria has no problem whatsoever with whom Obama visits and when,
we cannot predetermine it.”
‘The Presidential Adviser said that if things were based on how some
Nigerians see it Obama could have visited Kenya where he has
biological link before any of the 53 countries of Africa .’
But critics also faults this statement. Obama chooses to ignore
Kenya for the same reason he is avoiding Nigeria. In sharp contrast
to the situations in Nigeria and Kenya, Ghana as The New York Times
theorizes is an outpost of stability and democracy.
"In choosing Ghana, the administration is rewarding one of America’s
best friends in sub-Saharan Africa and a small outpost of stability,
democracy and civil society in an often-volatile part of the world.
By contrast, Kenya has endured a period of great strife and
political violence since Mr. Obama’s last visit.”
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