Nigeria’s Foreign Policy framework may take a more strategic dimension as the Federal government has mapped out ways to collaborate with retired ambassadors to inculcate their experience and expertise to strengthen Nigeria’s foreign policy objectives.
This was the focus of a foreign Policy Public lecture organized by the Association of Retired Career Ambassadors of Nigeria (ARCAN) in Abuja on Thursday, which laid emphasis on the new Foreign Policy drive of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration anchored on the 4-Ds, namely Democracy, Development, Demography and Diaspora.
In his keynote address entitled “Foreign Policy Agenda under the Tinubu Administration”, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar, said Nigeria’s foreign policy objectives have remained immovable and geared towards promoting and protecting Nigeria’s national interest and to promote African integration and support African unity. He added that the 4Ds is also towards enhancing international co-operation for the consolidation of universal peace and mutual respect among all nations and elimination of discrimination in all its manifestations.
The Minster noted that it is the duty of Nigeria as the largest democracy in Africa to counter the threat to peace from terrorism and irredentism in the Sahel “with a solid foundational basis of constitutional governance, strong democratic institutions and an alliance of democratic countries in the region.
He denounced the spate of coups in Africa saying “It is incumbent on Nigeria as Africa’s largest democracy (and serendipitously Chair of ECOWAS) to pull its weight with other democracies and constitutional governments to reverse this deadly trend.”
He stressed that the 4-Ds require working for Nigeria’s permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), G20 and all other relevant groupings where democratic norms, size of population and size of the economy ought to be the yardstick for membership.
He said further that the government will use diplomacy to develop its economy to achieve double digit growth by combining Agriculture, Infrastructure and Industrialisation. He stressed that “Attracting foreign investment in agriculture would help to close the gap between metro and rural areas and a bifurcation that contributes to Nigeria’s poor showing on the poverty index.”
On Demography, Tuggar said Nigeria will leverage its youth bulge to generate income and growth for now and for the future. These efforts, he noted, will require the use of technology to skip certain stages and fast-track development.
“For this, the Foreign Affairs Ministry is collaborating with the Ministry of Digital Economy, MITI and others, and it is using diplomacy to help create jobs for young Nigerians in the space of Business Process Outsourcing and even Human in the Loop- where large numbers of people are required to teach Artificial Intelligence,” he said.
President of ARCAN Ambassador John K. Shinkaiye, in his remarks, urged the Tinubu government to set appropriate priorities and strategies and identify potential challenges that the government may face.
The ARCAN leader pointed out that understanding the variables that affect the country’s position on many key issues, including security, economic cooperation, relations with other countries and the international community at large, is very important to the success of the Tinubu administration.
“ARCAN is also disposed to exchange views with other arms of government with interest in the implementation of the Nation’s foreign policy,” he said, adding that ARCAN is currently revising a seminar paper titled “Foreign Policy Agenda for Nigeria in a Global Environment of Change and Challenge”, which it prepared and made it available to the last government in 2019.
In his remarks, chairman of the occasion, Owei Lakemfa, said ARCAN through lecture is helping in the quest for the Foreign Policy Agenda of the Administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
He noted that in an ever-changing world Nigeria must constantly assess and reassess its foreign policy and must strengthen its Afrocentric approach by making the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) a key component of Nigeria’s Foreign Policy.
The former Acting Secretary General of the Nigeria Labour Conference (NLC), lauded the foreign policy thrust based on the Conceptual Framework of a 4Ds, stressing that Nigeria can boost its Diaspora Remittances estimated at over USD $30 billion dollars per annum in recent years.
