Nigeria’s exploits in the diplomatic turf has been exciting albeit challenging in the outgoing year 2024 as the nation pursues its national interest with zest.
The 4Ds foreign policy thrust of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration presents the renewed platform on which the country relates with the international community on the basis of democracy, demography, development and Diaspora.
The president, Vice President Kashim Shettima and other officials of government including the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, have embarked on trips to various countries to seek further collaboration on how to attract foreign investment to Nigeria to boost the country’s ailing economy.
Some of the most outstanding engagements were those with the People’s Republic of China during the 2024 Forum for China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), which was recently held in Beijing, where Nigeria signed about eight agreements to enhance critical sectors of the economy.
Perhaps the most important takeaway of this year’s FOCAC summit was the strengthening of bilateral ties between Nigeria and China with the establishment of Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the both countries and building a high-level China-Nigeria community with a shared future.
Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, stated that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s official visit to China and Nigeria’s participation in the 2024 FOCAC Summit has led to the strengthening of bilateral and diplomatic relations between the two countries.
Nigeria also hosted the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Abuja in November, where the Indian leader assured of more investments in Nigeria’s agriculture to ensure food security as well as in the Information and communications Technology (ICT) to boost the digital skills of Nigerians, education, health and other critical sectors.
This assurance was premised on the robust engagements between President Bola Tinubu and the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, who was on a two-day state visit to Nigeria( between November 16 and 17), the first in 17 years by any Prime Minister of India.
Indian Secretary Dammu Ravi, said the two leaders discussed bilateral cooperation in the field of trade, investment, defence, security, education, health, culture and people-to-people level at the delegation level talks.
The two leaders also focused on further enhancing the strategic partnership in various sectors, in particular in agriculture, pharmaceuticals, railways, transportation and development cooperation fields. The India-Nigeria relationship is very strong, underpinned by a strong economic cooperation and trade and investment. There are about 200 Indian companies who have invested about $27 billion in Nigeria.
The Nigerian President also visited South Africa to engage in talks on the effort to boost the Mines and steel sector in line with the diversification agenda of the government.
President Tinubu and his wife Remi, visited France where he discussed investment in Nigeria’s solid minerals with French President Emmanuel Macron while also making a trip to Saudi Arabia for the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Meeting.
Perhaps the most challenging engagements of Nigeria was the disturbing issue of the exit of Burkina Faso, Mali and Nigeria from ECOWAS in January which is still generating furors across the region as the three countries have refused all entreaties to return to the regional bloc following the threat of invasion of Niger because of the military junta that toppled democratically elected government.
Nigeria’s President as the chair of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government many think took an approach that estranged the three countries instead of diplomacy as the threat of the use of force to restore democratic order in Nigeria appeared to have failed.
The issue of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso has remained unresolved as the three countries have also not responded to a new time frame of six months given to them to return to the bloc or face the consequences of their exit.
Speaking to LEADERSHIP Weekend on Nigeria’s diplomatic exploits in 2024, Professor Babafemi Badejo, a former deputy special representative of the United Nations Secretary General for Somalia, said although the government made some efforts, overall, they appear “lackluster.”
He said, “Nigeria attended several meetings, including the United Nations General
Assembly (UNGA), G-20, and BRICS, but Nigeria, at least in the year under review, did not achieve full-fledged membership of BRICs while two additional African countries have become full members.
“South Africa has been there, Egypt and Ethiopia found it easier to join the BRICS as full members but Nigeria has not. It says a lot about our diplomacy.”
Badejo, a legal practitioner and professor of political science and international relations at Chrisland University, Abeokuta, said Nigeria was invited to the G20 summit in Brazil.
This builds a network. He added that it is not about going to meetings and sitting but articulating solid positions and taking a stand so that it will not appear as if the country is absent in the diplomatic fields. “Right now other countries are taking the lead and pushing us aside,” he added.
The author of a best seller on Politics in Kenya welcomed President Tinubu’s visit to China for FOCAC and also lauded the visit of the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi to Nigeria as a highlight of the diplomatic efforts of the administration. He interrogated the positive things that FOCAC and the visit of the Indian Prime Minister could bring to Nigeria.
On the vexed issue of the exit of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, the don said that Nigeria built ECOWAS as a “fundamental basis of the articulation of its power,” but Nigeria appears to have started the demise of ECOWAS by that threat of the use of force by President Tinubu against the Niger Republic.
“If you don’t have the power to carry out your threat you should not bluff,” he noted.
On the recent romance with France, especially on mining, Badejo said that it might not be helpful to Nigeria citing how the French have mined minerals in Niger for so many years without commensurate benefits for the people of Niger.
On the way forward Badejo said Nigeria must rejig its foreign policy by deploying enormous resources to pursue its foreign policy objectives. This he said must be done by taming corruption at home by stopping people from stealing resources at home.
He also expressed worry that for well over one year now the Nigerian government has not appointed ambassadors, which suggests that it is not taking diplomacy seriously even as he advised the government to immediately appoint substantive ambassadors and high commissioners to Nigeria’s foreign missions.
“So, if we can address corruption we can retrieve stolen resources and avoid re-looting to pursue our foreign policy objectives. We must balance things in our relationships with other countries and ensure that we are not at the receiving end. The much-touted 4Ds will not solve our domestic problems. We must first correct our domestic situation by taming corruption and realise a viable leadership that loves Nigeria instead of personal interests,” he said.
Also Speaking to LEADERSHIP Weekend the director of Centre for China Studies and renowned international affairs analyst, Charles Onunaiju, said the much touted exit of the three estranged countries in West Africa signaled serious dissension within the region. He also frowned at the recent effort of President Tinubu to pay a whopping sum of N85 billion to ECOWAS as its community levy, which he said does not guarantee any commensurate returns to Nigeria.
He added that irrespective of the fact that Nigeria is expected to meet its obligation as a regional leader; ECOWAS does not represent primacy in terms of economic concerns for Nigeria as this may not even procure the needed respect for the country.
He noted that for Nigeria to pay its levy at once heightens concerns about Nigeria’s “surrogacy of the West especially France”, which is being rejected in the region.
“It is a paradox that France is being rejected in West Africa over its failure in the war against terrorism but Nigeria appears to be warming up to France,” he said.
He warned that the implications might be damning for the country because it will breed sub- regional concern as to why Nigeria is sacrificing so much and not having commensurate returns from ECOWAS.
“What is the value of ECOWAS to ordinary Nigerians in practical terms? He asked. We have seen hostile attitudes of other West African countries to Nigerians despite all the sacrifices Nigeria has made. I believe that more of that money should have gone into investing in critical sectors of the Nigerian economy,” he added.
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