06072021 - We must okay FG's security operations in our states- Southern Govs

Power equilibrium: Russia,
China and the US (2)
Vanguard, TUESDAY, JULY 6, 2021 —15
The first part of this piece focused
on the dictatorial tendencies
in the US political system
HE could not spin himself
out of a very inept handling
of the US. As usual President
Trump had to blame somebody
else - this time it was the
World Health Organisation and
China. He charged that China
was not transparent in telling the
world about the virus, that it may
have come from a laboratory engaged
in bio-warfare. President
Trump even called the virus a
political weapon. But he misfired.
While US citizens were
dying by the truckload, China
worked to contain it, succeeded
and reopened its economy in the
shortest time imaginable.
Nevertheless, it is important to
get the etiology of the pathogen
to help in dealing with future
pathogens when they occur. A
new debate has now ensued. Did
the virus jump from bat to human
or was it a part of an accident
in the laboratory of Wuhan
where scientists were studying
virus for use in biological warfare.
Big bad boys behaving badly:
The US abuses China for lack
of human rights in China, Hong
Kong and for denying freedom
to Uyghurs in China who are
moslems. The US further rejects
China’s unacceptable threat to
Taiwan which it still claims belong
to China. It resents China’s
influences in other South-
East Asian countries. The US
has had 145 mass shootings in
four weeks since the verdict on
the murder of George Floyd.
Police kill Blacks daily. Republican
states are busy disenfranchising
Blacks in forthcoming
elections. The cases of Duante
Wright, Travon Martin and
many others remain unsolved.
The US would not allow Venezuela
and Cuba to have peace
and prosper, claiming that under
the Monroe Doctrine those
countries cannot be hostile to the
US.
Russia would imprison Alexy
Navalny, mass its armies in
Ukraine border; seize Crimea.
China is on the offensive by repudiating
China’s claim that the
Urguyhs are not subject to ethnic
cleansing as claimed by the
US. Each time the US attacks any
nation on human rights, they retort
by holding up US racism and
attack on Blacks for over 400
years as the quintessence of US
hypocrisy and double standard.
An increase in demagoguery
and a decline in the quality of
leadership in the world.
What else can the decline into
tribalism and nativeness and otherness
except a refusal to want
to listen to all sides and to form
policy which enhances diversity
and promotes all? Can we
snap Nigeria out of self-hatred?
Politicians are reactionaries, not
leaders. They achieve and maintain
power by responding to
public opinion, not driving it.
US intelligence agencies have
since nearly a decade been decrying
the cyber-attacks of Russia
on the US. They have highlighted
their vulnerability to cyber-attacks
from Russia, China,
North Korea, Iran, etc. They
have also claimed that Russia
had influenced the 2016 election
that brought in President Trump
by trolling millions of attacks to
targeted electoral audience -
those in favour of Trump received
favourable mention. Hillary
Clinton, Trump’s opponent and
the Democratic Party candidate
was lambasted and lampooned
in hundreds of thousands of
email derogatory to her – she
was accused of incompetence in
Libya which led to the death of
the US ambassador there. She
was further accused of gross
negligence and cover up in Bengazi,
targeting these emails to
specific groups and voting profiles
submitted to the Russians
by the Trump Campaign.
The FBI was forced to carry out
unending investigation of Mrs.
Clinton and a private email server
in her residence. Mr. Trump
publicly invited Russia to publish
the emails he claimed Hillary
Clinton was hiding because
it compromised her handling of
the Bengazi fiasco. “Russia,"
screamed Mr. Trump, ” if you are
listening publish the emails
Mrs. Hilary is hiding through
The US in a singular show
of bipartisanship between
the Democrats and Republicans
has passed a law to
fund research into beefing
up US internet ability up to
5G; what now is the difference
between the US and
China?
WikiLeaks. Most scholars believe
that without Russia interference
in US elections, Trump
would not have won. When
Trump met Putin in Helsinki,
Putin denied the charge and
Trump accepted his denial. It
would have been extraordinary
for Putin to have accepted such
a charge.
But when the US, the most
powerful nation on earth complains
that someone outside the
US was spying on it, using technology
to interfere in US election,
what should an observer
take from this US seemingly
impotent cry for help? What else
could US do? When asked why
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it did nothing, the US replied
that it could act but doing so
would compromise its assets in
all these countries: Russia, China,
Iran, North Korea. So what
is more important to the US? Preserving
the assets it has in these
countries or stopping the activities
of hackers into its infrastructure?
It would be naïve to believe
that US does not retaliate
in kind by cyber means to these
countries.
China through Huawei has the
most advanced G5 technology
which would confine all other
previous technologies to the
dustbin. UK and several other
countries had signed up to China’s
G5, which is now 10 years
ahead of Western prototypes.
The US, the West, Australia and
New Zealand share intelligence
among themselves. Again in this
arrangement the dominant partner
is the US.
The US threatened all other
members of this intelligence club
that if they accepted the Chinese
G5 technology, it would
pose a constant and imminent
danger to the agreement because
the Chinese would have installed
a backdoor opening
where G5 would be able to spy
into Western intelligence and
relay it to China. Britain was
forced to pull out.
The US in a singular show of
bipartisanship between the
Democrats and Republicans has
passed a law to fund research
into beefing up US internet ability
up to 5G. What now is the
difference between the US and
China?
Africa and the challenge of development
By JEROME-MARIO UTOMI
IT is no longer news that the
Director-General of the Industrial
Training Fund, ITF, Sir Joseph N. Ari, recently
presented the ITF Mobile Android GSM smart
phone to President Muhammadu Buhari at
the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The DG said at the presentation that the ITF
mobile phone, which was comparable in
quality to any other brand of Android phone in
the world, was assembled by the ITF Model
Skills Training Centre, MSTC, Abuja, as part
of the implementation of the vision of the
incumbent management of the ITF with
particular emphasis on research and
development. The phone was produced with
100 percent locally-sourced material.
It is proof that given the enabling
environment and opportunities, Nigerians will
unleash their creative potentials. Definitely a
cheerful development, but such joy easily gets
abbreviated when one remembers that the
shadows still linger of similar feeble attempts
in the past which ended in shame. There exists
also new awareness that this challenge is by no
means unique to Nigeria as a country but cuts
across Africa.
The sad reality is that the continent is the
second most-populated in the world (1.2 billion
people), yet sadly represents only 1.4 per cent
of the world manufacturing value added in
the first quarter of 2020. This is
further exacerbated by the fact that out of
over 51 countries in Africa, only South Africa
qualified as a member of BRICS, an acronym
coined for an association of five major
emerging national economies: Brazil, Russia,
India, China and South Africa.
This worrying concern about how off-track
Africa has gone in all facets of technological
development and advancement recently came
flooding during a conversation with C.N.
Oragwu, a former university academic in
physics, at his Lagos residence. Aside from the
facts that the conversation leads to the title
and partially forms the content of this piece,
Oragwu, during the conversation critically
highlighted how his new book entitled:
Technology and Wealth of Nations, which is set
for presentation to the public this month,
chronicles the slanted and unsustainable effort
different African governments made in the past
to bring their nations out of technological
woods, as well as outlined the way forward.
There is also another distinction to make.
Similar to construction of any business strategy,
where it is acknowledged that three main
players must be taken into account, the
corporation itself, the customers and the
competition - as each of this ‘strategic 3Cs
which form the strategic triangle is a living
entity with its own interests and objectives; but
must be taken care of by any organisation
desirous of survival; likewise, the book is
Why is it that Europe, which
hosted the industrial revolutions
in the 17th and 18th centuries,
did not permit technological
education in Africa in about 50
years of colonisation, and
prefers to send aids afterwards?
evident with some strategic antidotes that
signal solutions to Africa’s hydra-headed and
multi faceted technological challenge. A fact
that more than anything else qualifies it a most
read for policy makers in Nigeria and Africa
as a continent.
The above is not the only explanation as he
went ahead to make further distinction.
Separate from thoughtfully and masterfully
examining the inspiring relationship between
technological development and economic
progress of nations, the book deftly argues with
facts that the point of sail of all economies is
the introduction of the manufacturing sector
or the industrial economy. He establishes that
Africa’s prolonged economic plight is centered
on the two fundamental challenges of a
manufacturing economy.
It traces Africa’s economic backwardness to
its roots – a key problem that has kept our
policy makers handicapped and our
economies crippled. With documented facts
on the institutionalised crippling policies and
organised sequences of stagnating events of
the colonial masters, the author asks: Why is it
that Europe, which hosted the industrial
revolutions in the 17th and 18th centuries, did
not permit technological education in Africa
in about 50 years of colonisation, and prefers
to send aids afterwards?
Of course, the above question, in my view,
may not be lacking in merit considering the
fact that Africa presently is dotted with projects
built with aids from Europe, United States of
America, USA, and lately, China. For a better
understanding of this piece, let’s take a look at
the Chinese development aid to Africa. Going
by reports, Chinese development aid to Africa
comes to 47 per cent of its total foreign
assistance in 2009 alone, and from 2000 to
2012 it funded 1,666 official assistance projects
in 51 African countries. Also, the Brookings
Institution Aid Data study found that at least
70 per cent of China’s overseas aid was sent to
Africa from 2000 to 2014.
Some of these projects includes but not
limited to the African Union building in Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia, which cost $200 million to
build and was handed over in 2012. Recently
also, China announced its willingness to give
the Economic Community of West African
States, ECOWAS, a $31.6 million grant to build
a new headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria. China’s
scarves have found their largest African market
in Egypt, which imported supplies worth $45
million in 2014. The nations also have a
healthy exchange of carpets, with multimillion
dollar supplies travelling in both
directions. Dozens of African hospitals have
been built with Chinese funds in recent years.
China’s largest commitments in Africa are to
infrastructure projects, such as Nigeria’s $8.3
billion Lagos-Kano rail line, largely funded
through Chinese loans.
Whatever the true situation may be, I believe
that there exists something troubling
technologically that characterises Africa more
as a dark continent. More so, looking at the
current happenings and commentaries within
the continent, it is obvious that fair-minded
and foresighted Africans are in support of the
position as conversed by the book.
In fact, many have at different times and
places argued that though Africans may have
overtly shown remarkable improvement in
their culture and civilisation, the fact that after
almost 60 years of independence, African
countries continually look up to China for aid,
tells a story of a continent lacking in capacity
for taking responsibility for its actions and
initiatives for values.
On the way out of the continent’s
technological debacle and the current wealth
disparity among nations (industrial and
industrial economies), let's again cast a glance
on what the book is saying. The book argues
that the current wealth disparity among
nations (industrial and industrial economies)
represented by highly industrialised Europe,
North America and Japan on one hand and
most developing (non-industrial economies)
countries, in particular, those in sub-Saharan
Africa, on the order is primarily the difference
in the technical capability and capacity to
produce and manufacture modern
technologies and to use the technologies to
produce and manufacture globally
competitive industrial goods and to sustain
the commanding tasks of science and
technology in the economy.
Continues online:www.vanguardngr.com
*Utomi, the Programme Coordinator ,Social
and Economic Justice Advocacy, SEJA,
Lagos, wrote via: jeromeutomi@yahoo.com