For some years now, Nigeria’s role in international affairs has been on the decline steadily. With its immense size and huge population, our country ought to play a more significant role in world affairs. But that is not the case now. It is not being treated with the respect that should be normally due to it as the most populous country in Africa and the continent’s largest economy. In a study, “Gulliver’s Troubles’, a collection of essays on Nigeria’s international relations by distinguished Nigerian and foreign scholars, published a few years ago, to which I made a contribution, the consensus of the scholars was that Nigeria’s role in world and African affairs had declined significantly, and that given Nigeria’s immense resources and wealth, it was punching very much below its real weight.
Now, what is the basis of this consensus? Although Nigeria has continued to participate actively in African affairs, it no longer commands the influence it once had in regional affairs. As the largest economy in Africa and the biggest contributor to the budget of the African Union (AU), its counsel ought to be taken seriously in the organisation, as was the case until recently. When it contests for top positions in the AU, or some of its economic agencies, it loses consistently to member states that should wield less clout financially than Nigeria. Twice, it lost such vital positions in the AfDB. This is clearly an indication that, unlike in the past, Nigeria is no longer able to mobilise support for its candidates in such vital regional organisations. Even among its immediate neighbours, such as Niger, Chad, Benin and Cameroon, Nigeria’s influence is steadily on the decline. When Nigeria needed the support of these countries to effectively tackle the Boko Haram insurgency, it was summoned to Paris by the French government to a meeting with its own neighbours. This sort of thing would not have occurred in the 70s and 80s when Nigeria’s voice in African affairs was strong, and when most African countries still held it in high esteem as the leading country in Africa.
But since then, our country has become the object of crude and disrespectful jokes among many African leaders. Robert Mugabe, the President of Zimbabwe, a country that enjoyed Nigeria’s unstinted support during its liberation struggle, was reported as denouncing Nigeria for its widespread corruption. Specifically, he derided Nigeria as a country where planes would not take off until the pilots were bribed. Of course, this was an exaggeration for which Nigeria should have demanded from him an immediate apology. But I am not aware that we demanded such an apology from this man to whom Nigeria gave $500,000 in 1980 to fight the crucial independence election in Zimbabwe in 1980. The money was handed over to him personally in his residence by the late Chief S.G. Ikoku and I. Similarly, the President Of Uganda, Museveni, was reported as criticising Nigeria for asking for foreign assistance in tackling the BH insurgency, adding that his country, Uganda, would never ask for foreign military assistance in dealing with its internal difficulties. Yet, in 1962, when there was a mutiny in the Ugandan Army, it was to Nigeria that the Ugandan government turned for help. The Nigerian Army helped put down a similar armed rebellion in Tanzania.
But President Museveni was quite right in admonishing Nigeria for seeking to rely on foreign powers to help it solve its insurgency problem. Uganda is a country that I know quite well, having once served there during the terrible years of Idi Amin’s infamous rule. It is far less endowed than Nigeria and, in normal circumstances, should hold Nigeria in high esteem. But that is no longer the case. It was expected by other African states that a country with Nigeria’s immense resources, and the erstwhile reputation of its armed forces in peace keeping operations all over Africa, should be able to bring the BH insurgency to an end without recourse to foreign powers. And what has been the practical effect of seeking foreign assistance for an insurgency that we should have put down easily? It has been very little. As recently admitted by the Nigerian Armed Forces, the foreign powers that we brought in to help the country have virtually abandoned us. They complain that Nigeria was really not serious about tackling the insurgency headlong, and that Boko Haram has infiltrated the highest levels of government, a fact that even President Jonathan once admitted. How could we expect much military collaboration from foreign powers when President Jonathan is seen in Chad in the company of Modu Sheriiff, a former governor of Borno, who has been openly accused of complicity in the emergence and rise of BH? They have concluded rightly that military collaboration with Nigeria involves high risks to their military which they are unable to accept.
However, Nigeria’s loss of influence in African and world affairs goes beyond our failure to end the insurgency in our country. Nigeria is increasingly being thought of as a failed state that, despite its huge resources, has been steadily on the decline in terms of the quality of governance. The World Bank and other multilateral financial agencies are up beat about Nigeria’s impressive growth rate, estimated at over 6 per cent. But what is the practical effect of this impressive and steady economic growth rate? It has been very insignificant. Nigeria continues to have some of the lowest human development indices, even in Africa. With more than three times the population of South Africa, its closest economic rival, it generates less than a third of South Africa’s electricity supply. Its educational, health and infrastructure deficits continue to lag behind those of South Africa and some other African countries.
Why is it so? It is because of the widespread corruption in Nigeria, which has continued to undermine economic and social development. Virtually all the state institutions, including the executive, legislative and the judiciary, have broken down completely. The other day, the Chief Justice of the Federation was reported as complaining that the judiciary was rotten, with many judges openly taking bribes to distort justice. The bench too is believed to be just as corrupt. I need not mention the vast sums of money that routinely disappears from Nigeria, including the recent attempt to launder $9.3 millon in a so-called arms deal in South Africa
All of these negative developments impinge on our foreign policy the quality of which ultimately depends on foreign perceptions of our country. It is our domestic situation that determines our foreign policy and our role in international affairs. Our foreign policy will not be taken seriously or effective if we are held in low esteem internationally. Our role and influence in international affairs will inevitably decline. The Foreign Minister was recently reported as saying that Nigeria was sending nearly 600 delegates to the current UN General Assembly session. If this is true, it must be the largest of any delegations at the UN, including that of the United States. When I served at the UN, we did not have more than 12 delegates at any UN General Assembly session. Even then, I thought our delegation was too large, particularly as most of the delegates were not really interested in the work of the UN. After attending one or two meetings and collecting their huge allowances they simply disappear from sight, without contributing anything to our work at the UN.
A few days ago I told a former colleague of mine that Nigeria no longer had a foreign policy, a claim that I also made to a former foreign minister. Both of them agreed with my observation, and blamed the sad situation on negative developments at home, particularly the preoccupation of the federal government with the unstable domestic situation and political tension in Nigeria. This situation takes too much of the time of the President leaving him with little or no time for strategic planning in foreign affairs. He is not short of good advice from the Foreign Ministry, and many of the foreign affairs agencies and institutes that are obliged to offer him advice. But, despite his frequent foreign travels, he has little or no time to engage his advisers in a strategic review of Nigeria’s foreign affairs. This is the reason for the drift in Nigeria’s foreign relations and why Nigeria has lost much respect globally.
