The Nigeria Institute of International Affairs, (NIIA) appears to be moving to the second phase of its exertion on inserting the geopolitics of performance into Nigerian foreign policy. What may be called the first wave can be dated to September 9th, 2021 when it invested ace footballer, Sunny Ojeagbese, with the title of an Associate Fellow of the Nigeria Institute of International Affairs.
It was at the occasion that Prof Eghosa Osaghae, the incumbent Director-General announced the setting up of a unit in NIIA to articulate the boundaries of the sports – foreign policy nexus. Dazed, Ojeagbese left there to pen a nearly 3000 word piece full of theological invocations in hailing the title of ambassador, telling all how risky it is to just him Ojeagbese without the ambassadorial title. Still within that wave is the June 2022 conversation on sports in diplomacy.
The discussion is now moving beyond recognising that sports can be used to constitute a geopolitical identity for a country to how that may be done. Or to how a few models of that exercise have done this and yet how some great sports success stories failed to make it an investment. A more complicated task involving radical interruptions of much of existing codification of international relations.
It is an interesting move. Who knows if sports is not where the Nigerian exceptionalism might manifest quicker, becoming the bargaining chip if creatively plugged into the Nigerian project. It seems to be on a good start, given the diverse constituencies and voices foregrounding it: Chief Obasanjo’s, Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar 111, Pastor Adeboye, Gov Sanwo Olu, the head of the NIIA technocracy and a radio station.
