By Ambassador Usman Sarki
Certain principles and constructs may be immutable when it comes to the affairs of nations. However, nations constantly reinvent themselves or seek to revamp their images in accordance with the dictates of circumstances that may be impacting on their national interest. This self-renewal is a conscious effort borne out of the necessities of the moment or the advantages that may be derived from taking certain courses of action.
Strategic considerations and the overall assessment of opportunities are therefore; called into the crafting of foreign policy and configuration of the national posture towards better and effective engagement with interlocutors in various situations. This becomes rather urgent and important in Nigeria’s case.
The country is now in a transition mode. The incoming administration will have to find its feet and chart its own course in the pursuit of Nigeria’s foreign policy. Finding our way in the maze of global diplomacy and claiming a space for ourselves in the manner that should be consistent with our aspirations and the undertakings of civilized, peaceful and beneficial contacts with other nations and peoples, should underline the essence of our foreign policy under this new dispensation.
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The country’s leadership will however; have to realise that building consensus around the essential ingredients of foreign policy has always been a challenging proposition in Nigeria on account of the divergent and often conflicting interests of the ruling elites of the country. Despite this, the incoming government should attempt to find a common ground on which the parameters for pursuing our foreign policy and attaining our national interest objectives could be premised.
The immediate imperative is to move away from pursuing abstract notions about foreign policy and to seek to establish the approach to attaining the national interest on the firm grounds of realism. This is necessary in the age of fluctuating interests and increasing uncertainties around existential issues that are daily besetting nations today. Consequently, a few ideas could be proffered towards setting an agenda of practical actions in determining the way towards which the incoming government could take Nigeria.
I believe the first elements of importance for Nigeria’s foreign policy should be the concretization of actions that would serve to reinforce the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of our country. Today, these notions are treated with cold skepticism by the big powers as they assess the global alignment of forces and interests. Down playing them when they don’t suit their interests and reinforcing them when they do, the great powers are constantly reshaping the contours of international law itself based on expedience or calculated elevation of their own interests.
Protecting our sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity should be informed by the unconditional acceptance of our country’s unity through the embracing of diversity as a means by which all its constituent parts could realise their legitimate aspirations and actualise their potentials.
This fundamental standard should translate into the collective resolve towards the protection of Nigeria’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. These are not abstract concepts to be approached from a detached and theoretical perspective. They are in fact existential constructs that practically impact on the way we govern ourselves and conduct our relationships with other peoples, nations, regions and the entire global community.
The very foundation of our being should be to understand, appreciate and respect these fundamental principles on whose recognition and acceptance we can begin to build our relations with other nations, and construct the contours of our national interest. This should create a confluence between foreign policy and national security, whereby one supports the other and both enhance our capacity to deal with existential emergencies that could threaten our collective well-being.
Integrating the needs, challenges and opportunities to be provided by the constituent elements of the country, namely the states of the federation, should be an important factor in this regard. Foreign policy may be a statutory function of the federal authorities, however, the elemental aspects of carrying the sub-national level governments into consideration in crafting policies should offer new opportunities towards mitigation of emerging challenges.
These could come in the form of dealing with deadly pandemics, climate change or population management for instance. Dealing with such issues collectively would provide the basis for a wider dissemination of benefits in the country. Such considerations are critical in the sense that they foster a feeling of innate purpose in the federation that we have agreed to establish and construct.
Without such an outlook, there can be no determined commitment by the people to serve and protect the country at all costs and under all situations. This should be an underlying factor in crafting of Nigeria’s foreign policy. Consequently, the fundamental principles of the Nigerian Constitution as enunciated in Chapters 2 and 4 of the document for instance, should form the aspirational objectives of Nigeria’s foreign policy.
To be purposeful, impactful and relevant, Nigeria’s foreign policy must have as its primary constituency and objective the African Continent and its myriads of challenges, issues and problems. Africa is, and must, remain the pedestal on which Nigeria’s foreign policy is constructed and the arena in which it is effectively demonstrated.
The slogan is still about making it the African century
Africa therefore; will continue to be the most important item in Nigeria’s diplomacy and outreach policies and strategies. Our mistake in the past stemmed from the fact that we viewed Africa as a “foreign” entity. This outlook meant that we approached African issues in the same way that we approached relations with Europe, Asia or the Americas.
This is fundamentally flawed. The next administration should try to make the necessary amends. It should look at Africa as an intrinsic and integral entity of which Nigeria is just a part. In essence therefore; we will stop looking at Africa from the perspective of “foreign” policy and begin to internalize Africa as part of us, or as an entity of which we are a part.
The starting point of this new approach towards Africa should be from the perspective of our regional or subregion diplomacy. Giving greater prominence to regional matters within the ECOWAS system towards attaining better and more beneficial results can dovetail with our national security and economic aspirations.
Extending such outlooks to the rest of Africa in a systematic and prudent manner will also serve to advance Nigeria’s contribution to peace and security as well as better governance and management of the Africa Union and its various structures and organs. This in turn, could prove a more effective way of engaging with extra-Continental entities such as the United Nations.
In that way, we will begin to position our relationship with the rest of Africa on the basis of shared mutual interests and problems and the understanding that what affects us in turn affects all African countries and vice-versa. This approach to Africa will also inform our attitude to the rest of the world. This should also be the tentative steps that we could take towards the acceleration of integration of the Continent.
Our relationship with non-African nations will now be determined by how they perceive us Africans in terms of human rights and dignity and the lingering legacies of slavery, colonialism and imperialism. Such legacies are manifested today in widespread acts of racism and racial discrimination perpetrated against us and people of African descent everywhere.
Our friendship towards others and the esteem with which we will hold them will depend on how they see and treat us. Reciprocal treatment based on respect and extension of humanity and empathy, should therefore; be the foundations on which our relationships with others should be based. Where this minimum requirement is not extended to us, there can be no hope of any meaningful interaction between us and other peoples and nations.
Our dignity, our humanity and our self-respect are objects that are of inestimable value to us. We cannot forsake them for any reason or under any circumstances. The unfolding tendency nowadays to impose unwholesome values and practices on Africans by reshaping our conception of the family and the natural distinctions between males and females, is a matter of considerable interest and importance.
Nigeria must lead Africa towards resisting and indeed, rolling back, these ideologically motivated and value-laden transformations and establish the correct perspectives around which the family and gender issues could be streamlined in international discourses.
Another important pillar is the protection of our national interest as and whenever necessary or may arise. Economic advancement, deriving advantages in our dealings with other nations and peoples, and drawing positive attention and interest to our potentials, must be the main thrusts of our new foreign policy undertakings.
The advancement of positive and beneficial relationships between us and other peoples and nations in the form of contacts, exchanges and communication, is a determinant of a successful foreign policy projection. We should therefore, seek to establish better relationships with like-minded countries and people, who share the common values of humanity with us, and who respect our different inclinations and attitudes not as quaint and preposterous, but as a dimensional matter that is simply different from theirs, but equally valid and important, in the egalitarian apportionment of roles and functions to different peoples by their individual heritages.
