Abstract:
This study examines the interface between the Commonwealth integration and Nigerian foreign policy. The thrust of the study however is to ascertain whether the enthronement of democracy in Nigeria has significantly impacted on Nigeria’s Common-wealth economic relations. The study also investigates the extent to which the frameworks of democracy have enabled the Commonwealth impact on social welfare in Nigeria. Relying on Dependency theory derived from the political economy paradigm which focuses on the socio-economic dynamics of metropolitan and peripheral countries the study argues that the developing countries are still tied to the apron string of their former imperial master in a more subtle manner than was the case during the period of naked and direct colonialism, and as such, the benefits of international economic relations between the two sets of countries are distributed asymmetrically in favour of the metropolitan countries. This continued asymmetry in the distribution of benefits, the study maintains, forms a basically exploitative relationship between the dominant and dependent states. Adopting observational technique and depending on secondary sources, relevant data were generated and analyzed. On the basis of this, the study unveiled that though the frameworks of democracy have positively improved the Commonwealth – Nigeria relations, such have neither enhanced significantly the economic relations with Nigeria nor contributed in improving social welfare of the citizenry. Therefore, granting that the Commonwealth of Nations comprise sovereign countries that use the framework of the organization to pursue their national interest unmindful of the interest of other members, the study maintains that the developing member countries of the Commonwealth should synchronize their interests and as such foster and enhance relations among them also.
