Nigeria: The Nation's Foreign Policy

This Day
10 June 2011

Nigeria: The Nation's Foreign Policy

President Goodluck Jonathan said recently that Nigeria's Foreign Policy needs overhauling. Although the statement seem rather nebulous as the President did not elaborate on how he intend to refocus the policy, the statement was aimed at stimulating the foreign policy formulators to think out of the box, a new foreign policy direction that will properly position the country within the context of new realities in international relations.
Without doubt, the nation's foreign policy after 50 years, deserves a new focus, new thinking as it has become mundane.

Nigeria's foreign policy is the continuation of its domestic policy. The primary purpose of those who formulate our foreign policy is to articulate what they consider to be our national interest and relate it to the other nations, regions, groups within the international community.

As a result of Nigeria's federal structure and socio- political imbalance, the post independence foreign policy was more conciliatory and moralistic rather than realistic.