The underlying sentiment seems to be: How can a nation assist others when its own house is not in order? But which country is entirely free of fundamental issues? Consider our closest allies, the UK and the US, both grappling with poverty, inequality and other systemic flaws. Yet their problems have never deterred our engagement with them.
Turn the question around: Does Saint Lucia, with its own challenges, lack the legitimacy to share expertise with other nations? The selective scrutiny of Nigeria’s visit is telling. Prominent figures from Western governments and monarchies have come to Saint Lucia without public outcry—no demands to justify their presence, no dismissals of their relevance. In a society that claims to be raceless, we must ask: What fuels this sudden insistence on a purpose-driven mindset regarding foreign policy and the friends of Saint Lucia? Is our stance rooted in the Comptonian or Bustamante tradition—”Our country is aligned with the West and we cannot change geography”—or should we aspire to Errol Barrow’s vision: “Friends of all, satellites of none”? Then there are the allegations of corruption against the Nigerian president, which critics argue should preclude engagement. This is unfair as the president has not been convicted of any crime and deserves due process, a principle we demand for our own citizens. Moreover, foreign relations transcend individual leaders.
Presidents come and go; diplomatic ties endure, potentially benefiting our people long after.
I do not dismiss the need for principled leadership—there are cases where non-engagement is justified. But why is “corruption” selectively invoked to delegitimise certain relationships? Have we ever used corruption to delegitimise any other foreign leader, even when they have been found guilty? The issue is not whether moral leadership should guide geopolitics, but why our outrage is so unevenly distributed.
When have we severed ties over racism, sexism, or support for genocidal wars? Do we adopt a position of non-engagement with those who formerly enslaved our ancestors and have refused to pay reparations for their crimes against humanity? The usual rebuttal is economic: “The West fuels our tourism; we must engage.” But aren’t principles only principles when they are inconvenient to stand by? Or is it that our considerations are only economic, being branded as “ideological” and “values” just because we have not realised the potential benefits from Nigeria? Or is there an unspoken fear that aligning with Africa risks alienating our wealthier allies?
Disdain for blackness?
Some online commentary, which forms part of the muck, reinforced the myth of a raceless society. Many responses to the president’s visit invoked tropes of “voodoo”, “witchcraft”, and irrational fear, a stark contrast to the reception afforded Western leaders.
Dr Travis Weekes is instructive and accurate in saying that these “images of Nigeria are borne out of the cultural exploitation of the religions of Africa and the corruption of African folklore for Christian religious crusades, particularly in popular film such that when one sees the credits one realises that these movies are funded by Christian missions whose purpose is to tarnish, ridicule and denigrate African religion and culture”.
To illustrate, I compiled a sample of social media reactions to the visit. The empirical evidence I gathered was that much of the criticism was not just illegitimate but steeped in prejudice.
Some may argue these voices are unrepresentative of broader sentiment. Perhaps. But they reveal a troubling undercurrent in our collective psyche.
This visit should not have been controversial. Saint Lucia and Nigeria share deep historical and cultural ties. An 1815 British census recorded that of the 16 282 enslaved people in Saint Lucia, 3 488 were African-born, with 34 per cent from Nigeria. Our strong ancestral bond is undeniable.
Saint Lucian-born Sir Darnley Alexander became Nigeria’s first post-independence Chief Justice, the first non-Nigerian to hold the office. Another son of the soil, architect Neville Skeete, reportedly contributed to the design of Nigeria’s first Central Bank.
This visit was an opportunity for public education to dispel colonial myths and remind young Saint Lucians that success is not confined to the West.
Geopolitical necessity
The visit was also important because any student or practitioner of international politics and diplomacy would recognise that within this geopolitical climate, our traditional allies, as evidenced by their antiimmigration, jingoistic and nationalistic foreign policy positions, are turning more inward and, as such, lessen the policy space for the Caribbean to rely on their goodwill and benevolence.
We’ve seen it in USAID cuts, climate finance neglect, stonewalled reparations and the weaponisation of development assistance. The message is unambiguous: small states must look elsewhere.
As such, the Caribbean must Pwan douvan avan douvan pran’w and explore South-South cooperation. Nigeria, one of Africa’s largest economies ($500+ billion GDP) and most populous nation (200+ million people), offers untapped potential for trade, tourism diversification and investment.
Saint Lucia has already benefited from Afreximbank’s concessional loans for infrastructure. This visit could expand collaboration in renewable energy, tech, agriculture, and creative industries. Nigerian expertise in telecommunications, oil and agro-processing could prove invaluable.
The African Union recognises the diaspora as its “Sixth Region”, and CARICOM’s Africa- CARICOM summits signal growing ties. Saint Lucia must adopt an agile foreign policy – “friends of all, satellites of none”—cherrypicking areas of cooperation and engagement based on values, economic, social and political priorities, as well as history.
The Nigerian president’s proposals for education exchanges, visa waivers and cultural cooperation are promising. But success hinges on public vigilance and government accountability.
Above all, we need a decolonial re-education—a dismantling of the idea that progress flows only from the West.
Rahym R. Augustin-Joseph is a 24-yearold Saint Lucian pursuing his Bachelor of Laws at UWI Cave Hill, after earning first-class honours in political science and law. The current Commonwealth Caribbean Rhodes Scholar and a former UWI valedictorian, he is dedicated to using law and politics to transform Saint Lucia and the wider Caribbean.
Not too bad well said….you pointed out some very obvious issues that we as a people in the year 2025 still cannot overcome the myth of the perceived notion or ideology that White is Right and Black is bad….. that will not change in this lifetime. The Connie colonizers still want to have a foothold on Africa for its wealth and resources for the continued development and stain ability to many of today’s daily developed technology but we foam at the mouth and roll our eyes of a visiting African Leader extending an Olive branch to the diaspora to come home and establish our own foothold. We still craving our colonizers even when they are slamming their doors in our faces. We act like they use to coming here to offer St Lucian’s scholarships or anything else in abundance so we can thump up our noses at what The President of Nigeria had to offer….the pompous audacity not that it’s any surprising some still believe St Lucia can only survive and grow in the right direction ONLY under Red Men. The members of The Royal Family after the queen’s death came here a few years ago bearing gifts of reinforcements of their mental slavery AND NOTHING ELSE and we readily obliged and obeyed to their demands like the children of Tibet that we truly are, but a Black King came here bearing gifts to uplift our people and most naysayers couldn’t even see beyond his “Blackness “ much less.