By Owei Lakemfa
HILARY Rodham Clinton the 67th American Secretary of State swung through seven African countries in 11 days ending August 14. She was like an old conservative headmistress scoring her pupils in examinations she had not conducted, and making remarks on their moral conduct and fitness.
Her first call was in Kenya the ancestral home of her boss, President Barack Obama. Kenya had following its December 2007 elections witnessed an orgy of violence which claimed over 1,300 lives. She told the elites that improving democracy is the key to boosting trade and that investors will not be attracted to states with civil unrest or failed leadership. After taking a few dance steps at a dinner party in Nairobi, she flew to South Africa.
Regarded as the strongest country economically and militarily in the continent, she treated its government led by Jacob Zuma with respect; discussing as partners on how to reform international institutions for the benefit of all countries.
She sought Zuma’s views on regional matters like Zimbabwe where the anti-imperialist ZANU party holds sway, Sudan where a genocidal regime is in charge and Somalia, a failed state. After courtesies to the legendary Nelson Mandela, she was off to Angola.
Her remarks in Angola which were around governace could not be expansive; this was a country the US and its allies including Holden Roberto, Jonas Savimbi and the defunct Aparthied South African state had tortured with needless and seemingly endless civil wars until internationalist Cuban soldiers intervened and turned the tide in favour of the Angolan people.
Clinton’s next stop was the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), one of the richest mineral-possessing countries in the continent which the Belgians, Americans , their mercenaries and stooges like Mobutu Seseseko, Joseph Kasavubu and Moise Tshombe turned into a failed state within three months of its June 30,1960 independence.
Here, she addressed one of the fallouts of that tragedy; the large scale rape of girls and women. On meeting the rape victims she cried that these crimes must be prosecuted and punished. Unfortunately, these crimes are deregulated and only the restoration of peoples power across the country can stop them.
Next stop was the self-declared “Giant of Africaâ€Â Nigeria. Ironically, the country’s officials, wounded by Obama’s choice of small Ghana as the country to visit, worked and hoped for a high profile visit; but after Clinton’s visit, they started bellyaching.
She had noted the absurdity of the sixth largest producer of crude oil in the world importing petroleum products for its domestic consumption. Asking the “giant†to learn the judicious utilization of resources from little Botswana, she declared that “ investors will not be attracted to states with failed or weak leadership, crime and civil unrest or corruption that taint every transaction and decisionâ€.
In the country proper, Clinton fired from all cylinders. “The most immediate source of the disconnect between Nigeria’s wealth and its poverty is a failure of governance at the Federal, state and local levels. The lack of transparency and accountability has eroded the legitimacy of government and contributed to the rise of groups that embrace violence and reject the authority of the stateâ€.
Nigeria with all its oil and gas, she said, lacks electricity; that despite its estimated two million barrels of oil a day, the poverty rate is 76 per cent and that according to the World Bank, corruption and related problems have cost the country $300 billion in the past three decades.
Then, perhaps buoyed by an excited audience, she went into over drive: The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), she claimed, which had been “…doing good work in the past has fallen back in the past one yearâ€.
Although she received applause, her claims were not backed by verifiable facts; she seems to have the gut feeling that that the current effeminate leadership of the organisation is less effective than the cow-boyish  leadership of the EFCC under Nuhu Ribadu. After telling Nigerians mainly what they already know , and a few more knocks on the ruling elites, she flew into friendlier arms in Liberia.
Liberia, a country ex-Americans helped to establish is currently presided over by the continent’s only female president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. An unapologetic American stooge, she had gotten rid of her main opponent, Charles Taylor by conniving with then Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo and the George W. Bush administration in America to abduct him in his Nigerian exile and hand him over to an “international†court for conviction.
Clinton praised Sirleaf to high heavens, including imbuing her with economic prowess (contrary to the reality in the country) and the implementation of a “positive progressive agendaâ€.
In contrast to the Nigerian leadership, she told Sirleaf that the US has “ …confidence in your capacity (and) your competence to deliverâ€. Clinton said that Liberia which had witnessed a 14-year civil war is a guide to other countries transiting from conflict.
Then she flew to Cape Verde, the homeland of the legendary Pan Africanist, Amilcar Cabral. Here she met Prime Minister Jose Maria Pereira and held up the country as an African success story.
America regards Africa as part of her sphere of influence, so the tour is no indication that the Obama administration has high regard for the continent. Most of Clinton’s comments during the tour would have no effect particularly in Nigeria where her remarks were like pouring water in a basket.
Three days after her comments in Nigeria where she urged respect for the ballot box, the senatorial re-run in Ekiti State was essentially about thuggery, violence and awarding the election to the same ruling party candidate the courts found to have rigged the previous election.
Clinton detected a faint hope in Kenya, showed respect in South Africa, had apprehension in Angola, saw in DRC crimes against humanity to be apprehended, success stories in Liberia and Cape Verde and bewilderment in Nigeria . To her, she had spread a “tough love†message.