Excessive grandstanding and playing to the emotions of the audience at home cannot cut deals with the world leaders who today hold both the knife and the yam
President Tinubu’s speech tried to ingratiate the African and Nigerian publics occasionally to the point of unnecessary arrogance. Instances include: “We welcome partnerships with those who do not mind seeing Nigeria and Africa assume larger roles in the global community.” “The question is not whether Nigeria is open for business. The question is how much of the world is truly open to doing business with Nigeria and Africa in an equal, mutually beneficial manner.
The above bold assertions were, however, contradicted in the same breath by a plea for a version of the Marshall Plan for Africa – among other begging bowl syndromes. The Marshall Plan, named after the US Secretary of State George Marshall , resulted in the US Congress appropriating $13.3 billion in 1948 for European recovery over the next four years.
Part of the preamble to President Tinubu’s speech read: “Many proclamations have been made, yet our troubles remain close at hand. Failures in good governance have hindered Africa. But broken promises, unfair treatment and outright exploitation from abroad have also exacted a heavy toll on our ability to progress.
While I regard the fourth limb of the speech – on the pilfering of the continent’s resources with the active connivance of some countries and entities from the global North – as very bold and spot on, there are some sentences in that section that are either ambiguous or seem disconnected from the discourse. For instance: “Foreign entities abetted by local criminals who aspire to be petty warlords have drafted thousands of people into servitude to illegally mine gold and other resources.
On presentation, the President did fairly well. His diction was distinct and clear and he paced his reading well. But the entire presentation would have been better if the President had used a teleprompter or a tablet and avoided this habit of licking a finger to help him to turn a page of the prepared speech. There is also the small matter of dress code.
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