Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, has advised the Federal Government to prioritise discreet and sustained diplomatic engagement in responding to the designation of Nigeria as a country of particular concern (CPC) by United States President Donald Trump.
Speaking in Abuja on Thursday at a briefing to announce activities marking the 45th Anniversary Reunion Gala and Lecture of the Nigerian Law School Class of 1980, Mustapha recounted how late former President Muhammadu Buhari resolved the issue when Nigeria was designated a CPC during his administration.
He explained that Nigeria’s previous appearance on the same US list in 2020, during Buhari’s tenure, was resolved after the government successfully lobbied for the country’s removal through soft diplomacy.
“Because of the experience I have, this is not the first time we’ve been declared a country of particular concern. In 2000 and 2020, the same Trump put us there, but without the drama that this one followed. There was no tweet. It was just at the level of a policy decision, and I remember we then engaged and dispatched a team to Washington, made up of technocrats.
“We applied soft diplomacy in terms of reaching out to friends within the global diplomatic community, and we leveraged the advantage of the stature of President Buhari to talk, and eventually we got Biden in 2021 to delist us.
“I expect that is what is ongoing now, and I believe that there should be less noise and more engagement. President Buhari will always remind me that America has a big stick, and if they hit your head with it, the headache will never disappear. In his lighter moods, he would always remind me that caution in dealing with superpowers is important. Constant engagement, political back-end engagements, and leveraging friendship globally are equally important in the resolution of the issues now,” he said.
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