By Bola A. Akinterinwa
There were two major events in the past one week: the holding of a conference on Nigeria’s foreign policy and the consideration of a possible grant of political asylum to members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) by the Government of the United Kingdom. One important nexus between the two events is that they are both about foreign policy challenges that have always, at best, not been well addressed. For instance, how do we explain the quest for and the grant of an asylum to the IPOB? What is an asylum in international diplomatic practice? Should the reaction of the Federal Government, through the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, to the grant of asylum by the British be an issue of concern?
Retelling Nigeria’s Diplomacy Story As Ambassador Ba Clark Clocks 91 Years
Retelling Nigeria’s Diplomacy Story As Ambassador Ba Clark Clocks 91 Years
On Friday, April 16, 2021, one of the fathers of Nigeria’s Diplomatic Service, and early crafters of the country’s Foreign Policy, Ambassador Blessing Akporede Clark, marked his 91st birthday. Sandwiched between elder statesman, Chief EK Clark and his immediate younger brother, late playwright, Prof JP Clark, “BA” as his peers around the world know him, was born on that date in 1930 in Kiagbodo, which at the time was in Warri Province of then Western Region. Unlike his more media gripping siblings, this giant in global affairs, is conservative, taciturn, sober and restrained, even after exit from active public life.
By Bola A. Akinterinwa
Nigeria was a problem unto herself before, at, and after, independence. Before independence, the prevention of Southerners from settling down in the old cities of the North, was the epicentre of the problem. The ultimate objective of the prevention, by then, was to avoid the corruption or contamination of traditional culture, values and patterns of behaviour by foreign or strange elements. As explained by Nigeria’s former plenipotentiary High Commissioner to Botswana and Lesotho and Professor of Political Science, Dr. Alaba Ogunsanwo, ‘after the amalgamation of Nigeria, certain policies, adopted by the colonial administration at the behest of some of the traditional rulers, inadvertently created migration centres designed to ensure the non-contamination of traditional culture, values and patterns of behaviour by foreign or strange elements. The phenomenon first emerged in the northern part of the country, where the traditional rulers succeeded in persuadin
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The nominations signal an effort by the president and Secretary of State Antony Blinken
The announcement is for seven senior State Department positions and nine ambassador posts in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. A majority of the nominees are career Foreign Service Officers with extensive experience in their designated regions.
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The nominees also feature a significant number of women and people of color, also part of the Biden administration’s push to increase diversity among senior staff and diplomats.
This includes Karen Erika Donfried, the president of the German Marshall Fund, a premier transatlantic policy think tank, to be assistant secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs. Donfried also served as president and senior director for European affairs at the National Security Council during the Obama administration.