The Director-General, Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Prof. Eghosa Osaghae, said the international community recognises the importance of Nigeria as an African leader.
NIIA boss made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in Lagos, on Thursday.
Osaghae asserted that Nigeria is not just Africa’s biggest economy, but also its biggest democracy and one of the leading countries supporting peace initiatives across the continent.
He said Nigeria’s image and reputation had always been there, although, sometimes tampered with because of unfortunate perceptions of Nigerians.
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He described the diaspora as a strong arm of Nigeria’s international affairs, as can be seen in how Nigerians were doing well all over the world.
This, he said, reinforces the image of Nigeria as a natural leader.
“The world is waiting for Nigeria to prosper because that is the key to Africa’s prosperity.
“Without a doubt, Nigeria’s image, especially her leadership profile in the world, is growing strong again,” Osaghae said.
On what should be Nigeria’s focus in the international relations context in 2024, Osaghae said the whole world was searching for peace, adding that Nigeria was in the forefront of this search.
According to him, if there is no peace, it will be difficult to achieve anything else.
He noted that the last two years were very challenging, with very little peace in the world.
This, he said, birthed serious problems with development and overall human progress.
He stated: “Nigeria is strongly working with other parts of the world, state and non-state actors, to ensure that there will be more peace in the world and a conducive environment to pursue human progress and security.”
Osaghae said Nigeria’s foreign policy context had been very clearly defined in terms of the 4Ds that the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, articulated.
In December 2023, the 4D foreign policy doctrine, Democracy, Demography, Diaspora and Development, was officially inaugurated by Tuggar.
Tuggar said Nigeria and Africa’s development depended on this new line of vision articulated in President Tinubu’s new foreign policy concept.
On Osaghae’s part, Nigeria was joining the rest of the global south to take a more equitable global order, one that respected the values of rules and strengthened multilateralism.
“There will be more equitable participation in the affairs of the United Nations and other multilateral platforms that will strengthen the capacities of these institutions themselves and provide a conducive atmosphere for great countries like Nigeria to reset the global agenda” he noted.
Osaghae, however, said these things could not be set apart from Nigeria’s domestic issues, noting that as a country, the greater prosperity for everyone was being pursued.
Osagahe said: “We want to have a peaceful, strong and united country with reduced insecurity, and also ensure that our people have food security, health security, and all of the multidimensional aspects of security.
“In all of these things we are doing, we need partnerships and one of the things that President Tinubu has pursued vigorously is economic diplomacy and how to ensure the country gets a solid footing for economic prosperity.
“We want to have renewable and sustainable energy. We need investments in our country, more Foreign Direct Investment, we also need to see how the AfCFTA can be optimised for our country’s use.
“We need to strengthen ECOWAS, the African Union(AU) so we need all of these partnerships at different levels. The agenda that we have will be to make Nigeria more prosperous for the good of citizens”.
According to him, ECOWAS, by reputation today, is perhaps the most active regional organisation in the African setting in matters of democracy, security and others.
He said ECOWAS, under the leadership of Nigeria’s President, had come on very strongly on the need to arrest possible democratic reversal in the west.
He said the President had been unequivocal in saying ECOWAS would not tolerate unconstitutional changes, but at the same time recognised that there were challenges of development, dividends of democracy, citizen’s expectations and insecurity.
These kinds of issues, he said, needed to be addressed, adding that ECOWAS itself was having that multitrack approach to dealing with the issues.
“ECOWAS has not acted in isolation. ECOWAS is on the same page with AU, UN, and major global powers to see that we as a region can have a conducive environment to do the things that will make the region as a whole prosper,” Osaghae said.
