Another Summit, another snub

Mmegi Editor | Thursday August 7, 2014 12:25

The meeting was not designed as a come-together party for the more than 50 African leaders and Obama. It was a serious meeting to discuss critical issues affecting Africa’s development and its partnership with the world’s single largest economy.  That is why presidents such as South Africa’s Jacob Zuma did not attend alone.

He pulled along his vice-president. Every other invited president attended, except for Botswana’s Ian Khama, and the presidents of Ivory Coast, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The presidents of Ivory Coast, Liberia and Sierra Leone did not attend because they were grappling with the ongoing Ebola outbreak. They have concrete reasons for not attending and opting to deal with the humanitarian disaster on their doorsteps.

We do not.

Why did our president not attend the US Africa Summit, the largest such meeting of its kind where crucial economic and development decisions are sealed and where lasting partnerships, not only with the US, but other African states, are brokered?

Do we need to mention the fact that the United States has historically provided more assistance to this country than any other and continues to partner the Botswana government and civic sector in numerous socio-economic programmes ?

Organisations such as the Centre for Disease Control, Harvard Partnership, Peace Corps U-Penn, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and USAID have become household names over the years in critical areas such as the fight against the HIV/AIDS epidemic.  As declining revenues and rising debt have constrained the country’s budget, partners such as the USA have become crucial in supporting key initiatives such as the PMTCT and ARV programmes, and other interventions in education and healthcare.  Botswana needs more friends and more partners who can provide much needed financial, technical and human resources.

Africa’s superpowers, far richer and more prominent than us, felt the need to attend the US Africa Summit and make time for Obama because they realised the inherent value in befriending and interacting with the most powerful man in the world. It would be forgivable if Khama’s Washington no-show was a rarity for the president, but Batswana and other international observers are keenly aware that the president has been somewhat unwilling to attend international fora since his ascension in 2008.

In fact, on the few occasions that the president has gone beyond our borders on official duty, he has limited himself either to the region or to topics he is intimately comfortable with such as conservation and wildlife. Sadly, however, diplomacy or international representation at presidential level is not about the president’s personal preferences, but about what Batswana deserve from the Office of the President.

                                                                Today’s thought

“If you need something from someone, always give that person a way to hand it to you.”

 

                                                               - Sue Monk Kidd