National Role Conceptions and Nigeria's African Policy, 1985-20007
Abstract:
An important area of Nigeria’s policy towards Africa but which has not been adequately researched is the country’s National Role Conceptions. This has partly been because of the ambiguities in the pronouncements, assertions or declarations of the political or ruling class and the different interpretations of government of what the national roles of the country in the continent should be. The rhetorics of the policy makers do not always translate to action, and indeed there have been problems with clearly stating the strategies of how the roles would be addressed. These gaps have prompted this research. The study attempted to adopt appropriate research designs: it took samples from a population spanning foreign policy decision units, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, embassies of five African countries, and the research and intellectual community. Content and descriptive-historical methods were adopted for analysis, while the theoretical framework used to guide the analysis was national role theory. The findings included the fact that the four administrations under study had an African policy with clear national role conceptions, and that except for the Obasanjo civilian era with clear diplomatic instruments to fill the roles, and partly the Babangida regime which had some clarity of military and economic diplomacy strategies, the role conceptions were often outlandish and vacuous as far as instruments of policy were concerned. In terms of the politics of role conceptions and foreign policy making, the four regimes under study exhibited a high degree of dictatorship, making foreign policy a class, clique, and secret process between the President or Head of State and his chosen kitchen staff or cabinet, with or without the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Against the backgrounds of the findings in the areas of role conceptions and assumption, the study recommends a policy shift from Afrocentrism to a “Nigeriacentrism”. This would not imply the abandonment of Nigeria’s leadership role in Africa or the abandonment of its principle of good neighbourliness; but rather the strengthening of African leadership to better the interest of Nigerians, and attending to national (citizen) issues first and always. The study, by its national role perspective to Nigeria’s foreign policy, expands the behavioral approach and empirical dimension of the study of Nigeria’s African policy, adds to the appraisal of Nigerian foreign policy and role conceptions in African policy implementation, constitutes another major addition to the growing literature of Nigeria’s foreign policy, and thus adds to the expanding field of foreign policy analysis; while its study of two governance types leading to a comparison of two regime behaviours, provides another unique base for foreign policy study.ORDER COMPLETE MATERIAL (CHAPTER 1-5)
