AS THE COLD WAR RESTARTS; WHERE IS AFRICA? Written by KEMKA S. IBEJI
It was Bernard Baruch, the multimillionaire financier and adviser to presidents from Woodrow Wilson to Harry S. Truman, who on April 16,1947, coined the term “Cold War”. With the coinage, he was to describe the increasingly chilly relations between two World War II Allies - the United States and the Soviet Union. This war was to rage from 1947 to a time in the 1990s when it was thought to have ended. However, it seems to have begun in earnest.
In trying to give meaning to the concept "Cold War", Wikipedia defines it thus; "A cold war is a state of conflict between nations that does not involve direct military action but is pursued primarily through economic and political actions, propaganda, acts of espionage or proxy wars waged by surrogates".
Very little consideration of world politics will remind political historians on the international plane of the bipolarism at some point in that purview. The United States of America was leading one front while the USSR led the other horizon. Usually, as politics does not go without economic underpinnings, the Western bloc thrived on Capitalism while the Eastern bloc led by Russia held sway on Communism (Socialism). This continued and was tagged Cold War by students and practitioners of international politics. This was simply war based on ideologies.
Ideally, many scholars have held that wars that are fought upon ideological foundations are hardly won or lost. This is now beginning to seem not just a maxim of verisimilitude but a truism in itself. It now sounds that such wars will keep changing just battle fronts while the substance remains.
At certain frame in time, one would have believed that the cold War was over. The world have almost been ruled by capitalism. I think it was Barack Obama who asked the whereabouts of communism or socialism. Like a rhetorical question, he returned to proffer an answer to it with some gait of arrogance when he said "it's dead as the dodo". Yes, like him, many other have believed that the Cold War was buried sometime between 1989 and 1991. Then it sounded like the true picture but today, developments have put doubt on such beliefs.
The question that bothers the mind now is if really the cold War is over. You may wish to wish it away and wave it off simplistically or say it is over. It however will hunt the world you live in if you do not wait a moment before such hasty resolve. You may also trash it in the bin of reigning theory of conspiracy. Whether it is true or false will have its own time of judgment and justice.
But what should bother Nigeria and Africa more at this time and especially about this? Why must this question attract the attention of this part of the world - Africa?
The concern of rational thought in Africa is that there is high need for leadership based on ideology once more. It can be recalled that in secondary school government classes few years ago, Nigerian foreign policy was prominently taught. This cliché was very popularly then; "Africa as the centerpiece of Nigerian foreign policy". This was manifest in both the politics, economy, security and more in interstate relationships. A loud example is the days of ECOMOG. Nigeria took the lead in Africa and ensured the safety and territorial integrity of African nations.
On the other hand, most African countries notably Nigeria played nonalignment in international politics. Yes, Nigeria and most African countries were able to hold their own. We could hear of African Socialism, Kwameh Nkrumah's Consciencism, Negritude of the Senegalese Leopold Sedar Senghor, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and the concept of Ujaama, Social Welfarism of Obafemi Awolowo, and many others. They stood out on sound ideologies and never played the slavish game of today's African leadership. While not aligning with either of the gladiators of the bipolarism, Nigerian economy was crafted as Mixed Economy. Her international politics was laced as nonalignment.
Now that the cold War has resurfaced, where will Africa be? Where will the big brother Nigeria align? What will be our foreign policy? What will be our stance in international politics? Where do we stand in the safety and security of African nations? What ideology will drive our concerns and states? Are we going to be consumed and subdued in the globalisation without a voice? Or are we on a second missionary journey into colonialism?
Once again, it's time for us to face the reality. The Western bloc is losing their grip on the monopolarism. The Eastern bloc is reinventing herself, gathering force and getting fully back at the center. It might be a showdown to run a span. The world may be on the precipice. The new strand might be a mutated sociopolitical and ideological organism tainted by time and strategy. The world is a bit shrunk now into a global village and distances are highly shortened. The reach will be felt strongly and only strong countries will last the shakeup. And the question reverberates; where is Nigeria in particular and Africa generally in this new scheme of the world?
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