Senator Kevin Cramer is a Republican who is the junior senator for North Dakota. Japhet Joshua Omojuwa is a member of the board of the Halifax International Security Forum. This exchange took place at the Halifax International Security Forum.
Senator Kevin Cramer: with that and I think the Christians in Nigeria today are probably feeling pretty good about Donald Trump's position.
Japhet Joshua Omojuwa: Thank you very much. Senator, you said the Christians in Nigeria today are probably feeling good about Donald Trump. So I'm a Christian from Nigeria. One out of 100 million Christians very small sample size.
I do not feel good about Donald Trump. He call Nigeria a disgraced country. Frankly speaking that's not so bad because he called us. . . used to call us a shithole country. So it's a kind of improvement on. . .disgraced country is an improvement.
Is there a better way, for instance to. . . a decent way to offer help to someone? So if I said if I look at all the shoes on this panel and you guys are wearing nice suits, everybody is wearing nice suits but there's a differentiation of shoes. The senator's shoe is different. So if I was your friend after this panel, I'll buy you a gift a nice shoe to match up with your suit. I wouldn't have to say anything about the state of your shoes that made me buy those shoes.
Is there a way that powerful countries can help less powerful countries, poor countries without doing it in a way that leaves the worse off?
For instance, America went to Libya. Libya has a causative effect on the terrorism challenges that Nigeria and the Sahel is facing. I won't talk about the other places America went to. Let's just stick it to Nigeria.
Since Donald Trump said what he said for Nigerian Christians, Christians have been abducted in a church in the north-west of Nigeria, Muslim students have been abducted. I will not speak to the causation but there's a correlation between Donald Trump. . .from the point Donald Trump spoke about Nigeria's challenges and the escalation of terrorism.
So decency apart, there are rules of engagement, there's a global rules based order, is there a way, first of all, to speak about Nigeria in a respectful and decent way not just as president of America, but as a human being and much more so as the president of the United States of America, that I would always respect as a person and frankly speaking, Nigerians continue to respect generally.
Also, is there a way to help Nigeria, because for instance, one of the reasons we failed woefully at fighting terrorism was because desite having the money, despite having the intention and motivation to buy weapons from America for so many years we were denied. Eventually we got them and for some of those weapons they they also told them where not to use those weapons. So I'm just going to ask and sit down, is there a way to decently help Nigeria without making things worse and wihhout disrespecting Nigerian Christians and Muslims.
Senator Kevin Cramer: Thank you very much. I think great question. No doubt the answer to your question is certainly and I I want to address both things. First of all, the words do matter. They do. You were kind in suggesting is there a way to do some things and not needing you know to make things worse by the wrong words. The right words help. You know, if a more delicate way of saying something is obviously better than a more brutal way.
That said, at the end of the day, a lot of people have promised a lot of things to Nigerian and several African countries. And by the way, you're talk you're once again I point to my colleagues who are two of the biggest advocates for our relationship with Africa.
And I won't go into all the ways that they do that or that we do it together, but but the actions do matter. A lot of people will say the right thing and do the wrong thing. Other people will maybe say the wrong thing and and mean to do the right thing. Is there a better way? Certainly. But one thing your your example is very specific and it's appropriate in your case.
But you also touched on the larger issue of it's not just one country. It's not just one on one. We did. There was an earlier panel I I forget which one that that got to the point of and it might have even been Senator King I don't remember but one of the senators spoke to America's retreat. I think it might have been Tom Tillis now I think of it. America's retreat from several areas which has left them vulnerable to to the predators if you will to China especially and their predatory financing and behavior.
There there are lots of ways and I think for example one of the areas where President Trump and I have disagreed quite openly is in the use the effective use of US AID. Those things need to be conformed for sure. But when we talk about democracy and I talk about the difference in the United States as being more self-governed, he is a reflection of the country.
All of our democracies, democratically elected leaders are a reflection of their country and that's the pastoral role they should play at the higher level but at the governing level I think globally speaking aid to friends and would be friends and possible friends is a bargain compared to to munitions and I just think we need to be more directly engaged in
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