It was with a considerable degree of excitement that I received a copy of a brand new, landmark book on Nigeria’s foreign policy titled ‘Six Decades of Nigeria’s Foreign Policy: Old Visions, New Issues’, published in 2021 by the University of Lagos Press and Bookshop Ltd. With the downturn in the country’s economy following the dissipation of the famed oil boom of the mid 1970s and early 1980s that funded an activist and exuberant Nigerian foreign policy, the role of the management of external relations in the attainment of Nigeria’s stipulated national goals and objectives has been significantly downplayed. The confidence with which Nigeria bestrode Africa and the globe, deploying her ample resources to pursue Afrocentric and Pan African interests substantially waned as the potency of oil, her economic mainstay, declined in the global economy.
Did this mean that a significant chunk of the humongous resources committed to pursuing at the time what was seen as a vibrant and dynamic foreign policy would have been better invested in creating a genuinely resilient, self-reliant and sustainably prosperous economy which would then later serve as a basis for a vigorous foreign policy articulation and implementation? It is easy with the benefit of hindsight to answer that question affirmatively but those charged with the responsibility of studying and designing the country’s foreign policy as scholars or technocrats or executing such as administrators at the time did not have the benefit of such luxury.
It is my view that, despite the regression in Nigeria’s economic fortunes, it should still have been possible to maintain a dynamic foreign policy as well as still more astutely manage the country’s external relations to achieve strategic national objectives. This is, of course, just the perfunctory musing of a layman in a field that requires considerable specialist knowledge and high level analytical skills. And that is exactly where this new book comes in as a most valuable companion not just to the scholar in foreign policy but equally to the general reader seeking a reliable guide in an expansive sphere of knowledge. Edited by two accomplished foreign policy experts, Professor Solomon Oladele Akinboye of the University of Lagos and Dr Adeniyi Semiu Basiru, an independent researcher, consultant and policy analyst, the book runs into 414 pages subdivided into eighteen chapters.
Referring to the rich assortment of experts that contributed the various chapters in his characteristically insightful foreword, former External Affairs Minister, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, noted that “This is a book which has achieved several objectives whether or not these are the intentions. First, there is a list of some of the existing scholars in the field of international and strategic affairs in Nigeria. This is pure knowledge to fellow scholars all over the world. This is also utilitarian knowledge to producers of news and commentaries on world mass media who need informed analysts and who are prepared to use them. Unfortunately, commentaries and analyses on low-and-medium income countries still suffer from parachute or mid-stream syndrome where analysts are ignorant of the beginning of a crisis. Invariably, perpetrators are turned into victims and vice versa. Here is a ready-made list and reference point of Nigerian scholars”.
The book is divided into three broad parts. Providing the theoretical framework that underpins the analyses in the various chapters, Part 1 features Godwin S. Mmadubuchi Okeke who examines ‘The Domestic and External Contexts of Nigeria’s Foreign Policy’ and Idowu Johnson’s appraisal of ‘Leadership Role Conception and Nigeria’s Foreign Policy at the Regional Level’. While Okeke points out that Nigeria’s ability to play an active role in the comity of nations will be a function of her developing a stable political and economic system in line with the developments in the international system, he notes that “It has long been argued by many foreign policy experts that Nigeria’s long-standing ‘big brother’ posture and ‘father figure’ role towards most African countries is no longer tenable because it has proved continuously ineffectual”. He continues: “Hence, the calls for reciprocity or a quid pro quo approach in the country’s relationship with other African countries”. While noting Nigeria’s contribution to the elimination of colonialism, apartheid and racism, which led to her categorization as a “Frontline state”, Idowu Johnson stresses on his part that “However, with the recent economic and political crisis confronting Nigeria, there is a need for Nigeria to re-strategize her leadership role at the continental level” and that “Finally, the leadership role of Nigeria in the 21st century can be discerned through the need for Nigeria to overcome her domestic problems without necessarily over-stretching herself to attain African unity. In this context, Nigeria can use her position as a non-permanent member of the Security Council of the United Nations to influence Africa in global politics”.
In Part 2, which examines what the Editors describe as ‘Old Visions’, in Nigeria’s foreign policy, some of the issues x-rayed include Nigeria and Liberation Diplomacy in Africa from the 1969s to the 1990s; A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Nigeria’s Afro-centric Policy since Independence; Nigeria’s Role in the Expulsion/ Withdrawal of apartheid South Africa from the Commonwealth; Issues, Gains and Pains in Nigeria’s Good Neighbourliness Policy as well as Economic alignment and Political non-alignment in the context of Nigeria and the Politics of the Cold War. Other topical areas on which analytic searchlight is beamed in this section are Nigeria’s efforts in the search for African integration in the 21st Century; Assessing fifty years of Nigeria’s Participation in International Peacekeeping; economic diplomacy under the General Ibrahim Babangida regime and diplomatic diversification of the General Sani Abacha regime as well as the Progress and Pitfalls of Nigeria’s pursuit of national interest in Peace Support Operations.
The ‘New Issues’ in Nigeria’s Foreign Policy analyzed in Part 3 include Issues, Challenges and Prospects in the Pax Nigeriana Project; Transnational Terrorism and National Security in Contemporary Nigeria; Thoughts on Nigerian Foreign Missions; Globalization, Infectious Diseases and Nigerian Foreign Policy: A reflection on the Ebola Epidemics; The New Scramble for Africa and Nigeria’s African Policy and Nigeria-BRICS Relations and the Next-11 Projections: The Dynamics of Economic Power. It would appear to me that Nigeria’s foreign policy has not effectively reflected and responded to these critical ‘New Issues’ in the last eight years. However, in future editions, the Editors may consider including a chapter on the increasing significance of the role of the Diaspora in Nigeria’s foreign policy since 2915.
In their enlightening introductory chapter, which navigated the Visions, Context, Issues and Challenges in six decades of Nigeria’s foreign policy, the Editors, in proffering the necessity for the book, submit that “Judging from happenings within the national space, in the last four decades, clearly, Nigeria has not built a strong national architecture for her foreign policy and external engagements. It is, therefore, imperative to bring Nigeria’s foreign policy and external engagements into the discursive radar scene”.