Nigeria’s former envoy to Singapore, Ambassador Ogbole
Amedu-Ode, in this interview with VICTOR AYENI, speaks on causes and implications of Russia-Ukraine war
What was the primary cause of the Russia-Ukraine war?
I think that has already been well spelt out. Russians are against Ukraine becoming a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation because they believe that will bring that defence alliance of western countries led by the United States of America too uncomfortably close to their doorstep. And the Ukrainian authorities are bent on finding “protection” in the arms of that western alliance – NATO. It is a question of ‘this is where I draw the line, do not cross it.’
Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, had said, “Nobody is going to attack the people of Ukraine” that there were “no strikes on civilian infrastructure,” but now based on reports and video footage from social media, we see that this has not been the case. What can world leaders and human rights watch organisations do to mediate peace in this crisis?
Of course, if that is the situation, it is condemnable, because in the rules of engagement, civilian targets are exempt from being targeted in any military confrontation such as this.
The Nigerian Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr Goeffrey Onyeama, said authorities were advised not to quickly act to evacuate Nigerian students from Ukraine, that “it was very difficult to take a definitive position with regard to advising everybody to leave.” Was this a wise gesture or an unfortunate one?
Already, I am in touch with two students. One of them at about five hours ago was at the Polish border. He left for one border crossing to the other because the first one was 28 kilometres long. Then he went to another one where, as of the time when we spoke, he was about two hours away from crossing.
The other one said he was heading towards the Romanian border because the Polish border was choked up. So those on the ground are already on the move and I think we must and we should act very quickly. However, against the backdrop of the dearth of information and the inadequate logistics that we may or we may not have at our disposal, I think we should act fast enough because in a desperate situation, our children will start to get into trouble. What kind of trouble, I don’t know.
I know of a case, when I served in Iran, there was a Nigerian who was taken prisoner of war by the Iranian authorities. And according to him, even though I did not meet him, my colleagues who had been given consular access to him prior to my arrival in Iran told me that his side of the story that he was a student in Iraq and when the war got to a certain stage, they were conscripted – not mobilised – to go and fight and being ill-trained, he was caught and taken as prisoner of war. All attempts to make the Iranians know that he is not a regular soldier did not work.
So, we would not want a situation like that to happen to any of our students in Ukraine because in a desperate move, Ukrainians may want to begin to conscript our children to go and fight. Because I have been following this and the way it is going is that, it could get to a point of hand-to-hand or face-to-face; the Ukrainians do not seem to have a capacity or the capability to strike beyond their border and the Russians have already crossed the border into cities. The Russians are pounding targets in their cities in order to soften the targets before moving in totally. That is what I think.
The president of the Nigerian Students Union in Ukraine said students made several calls to the Nigerian Embassy there but received no response and were told to visit a website that had not been updated. What do you think that says about our country’s leadership?
Well, if that is the truth, then it is regrettable because in a situation of emergency, our people resident there and students non-resident there should be able to have a recourse to contact our mission there in order to be given proper directives and guidance on how to conduct themselves and if maybe, evacuate the country.
But you will also agree with me that we have certain difficulties, one of which is the dearth of information. Information in the sense that not many Nigerians want to register with our missions, but that is not the case right now. The case now is Nigerians want to get in touch and they do not have any access and if that is the case, then it is regrettable.
Is the plan of the Federal Government to commence evacuation of Nigerians stranded in Ukraine not being complicated by the fact that Ukrainian authorities have cancelled flights and closed the country’s airspace following the Russian military action?
Yes, it is now much more complicated. So in that case, if I were to be in charge, I would request that they should get Nigerians to cross the border into Poland and/or into Romania, and then send the vessel (if that is going to be the case) or the aircraft to these two countries, to evacuate our people.
Indeed, Nigeria has taken a stand criticising Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, what is your stand regarding this?
I have not read the text of Nigeria’s position on the issue, but my own stand is that war is something to be abhorred at all times. Negotiation is the best option in terms of resolving human conflicts. However, having done that, one should actually note that a war does not just happen overnight. There are gradual stages and sequential build-up towards it and preventive diplomacy should have been deployed in order to stop it.
Now, how do you go about that? On both sides, these countries may be making a submission of ‘I am right’ and ‘I am supposed to be this or to do that,’ like Russia is against the joining of NATO – a treaty or pact that is common to most western countries and Ukraine is saying that it is a sovereign nation and it should be free to do that. This is primarily the cause of the conflict, but there might be other reasons, so if that is the case, there could have been major negotiations exertions in order not to go into war.
There have been some world leaders and politicians taking sides (overtly or covertly) in the Russia-Ukraine crisis, should African countries support any side in this conflict?
What do we gain from supporting any side rather than call for peace?
What are the likely economic and political implications of the war for Nigeria given that our country relies on crude oil for most of its foreign exchange and forms two-third of government revenue?
War is bad, but for Nigeria, it has led to a spike in the price of crude oil per barrel which is the mainstay of our foreign exchange earnings. The figures show that it has gone up to $105 per barrel as of this morning when I was reading it. It is good for the Nigerian economy, but then war is not good.
It is still also going to have some political repercussions or ripples across the world, because Ukraine is a major producer of grains so we should expect that the price of that commodity and others is going to spike, causing more difficulty in the current situation of the effects of COVID-19 onslaught.
All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from PUNCH.
Contact: [email protected]
Copyright PUNCH.
All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from PUNCH.
Contact: [email protected]
