It is to say the least, very disgraceful, the level of negative publicity and the make-good attempts that trailed President Muhammadu Buhari’s journey to Japan for the 7th Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Yokohama.
It began with the insinuation in certain quarters that Nigeria was degraded and denigrated by the leading world economies by refusing to invite her (Nigeria) to the G7 Submit held in Biarritz, France, whereas some lesser nations on the continent were given the invitation.
The picture painted was that those super and advanced economies must have seen through Nigeria and felt there was no need to invite her. Again, it was sold that Buhari’s journey to Japan at the same time the G7 Summit was holding was a face-saving gambit. It was later circulated that the President was not even in Japan or had not been sighted anywhere and that all the pictures fed online and in the local newspapers down here were old and doctored pictures.
Then, the worst- that certain Nigerian citizens had gone to the residence of the Nigerian Ambassador to Japan where Buhari was said to have gone to visit the nation’s representative, to “arrest him” in order to subject him to a DNA test. To put a lie to all of these, the Presidency wasted no time in dishing out pictures both online and in the print to prove that President Buhari was indeed in Japan for the purpose he embarked on the journey.
From what has happened in the last one week, it is evident that Nigeria is really sick. Everything is wrong with the country at the moment. There is mistrust and lack of confidence at the highest level of it. This is probably, the first time, this kind of thing has happened.
It should be a food-for-thought for every concerned Nigerian, particularly those in government. A few days ago, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had to issue a statement debunking an alleged attack on the minister in Austria by some aggrieved Nigerians. The ministry had explained that the video which went viral on social media was not recent. That, also, was a negative sign.
A nation , the citizens of which is so disgruntled to the point of creating ugly scenes around the highest officials of their home nation whenever they see them abroad, is an indication to right-thinking people of the world that such a nation is failing gradually. The world has so become a global village that the goings-on in one country are seen the very second they are happening. Rather than pretend that all is well, Federal Government should sit down and do a self-appraisal in order to find out where things have gone wrong.
There are other leaders in the meeting that the President attended; why was he the only one that has “unruly children” that threatened the peace of others at the meeting?
What happened in Japan was a huge disgrace that demands to be urgently addressed.
If some citizens have become so aggrieved with their leaders to the point of ambushing them at international meetings, then we are heading to a disaster.
Rather than point fingers, or engaging in unhelpful rhetoric, steps should be taken to address whatever, ills that may have given rise to behaviours that are anti-Nigeria, which have only ended up escalating our fault-lines. “A stitch in time”, they say, “saves nine.”
Zebulon Agomuo
