Nigeria’s Foreign Policy ill-defined, Can’t Achieve Results, says ex-NIIA DG, Akinterinwa

An international relations expert, Prof. Bola Akinterinwa says Nigeria’s foreign policies are ill-defined and are incapable of achieving the desired results for the country.

“Our foreign policy objectives are at best ill-defined. We do not have it. Look at what we call foreign policy focus. Donald Trump set one example; he said America first. What does that mean?

“America first simply means that the determination of the priority of interest whenever they are at stake, means under no circumstance will there be any interest that is superior to that of the United States of America,’’ he said.

Akinterinwa , a former Director-General, the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Lagos, said the country would continue to make faulty steps that would be detrimental to its international image if the Buhari administration continues with the same foreign policy template.

“The country’s foreign policy objectives are not only ill-defined, but are incapable of driving the desired results,’’ he said against the backdrop of Nigeria’s absence from the G7 Summit which held in France at the weekend.

According to him, if the government is serious about stamping its feet in the international community, it must rejig its foreign policy strategies which must be ideologically-driven.

He further explained: “Donald Trump, after America first, moved to the level of saying Make America Great Again. That has been his propaganda, but now as he is contesting for re-election now, he is saying “Keep America Great’.

“He is not saying Make America Great, he is saying that America is already great, let us sustain it.

“What are we doing about Nigeria? In South Africa they are killing Nigerians on a daily basis and then the foreign minister will come and tell us that they have signed one agreement with South Africa or they are going to have bi-national Commission.

“We are not really serious in this country; we have people whether they are cabinet members or politicians, who only think in terms of the centre plan as national interest.

“But the implication is that we would be moving in vicious circles in the next four years unless the government sits down to evolve a foreign policy grand strategy which would now be ideologically driven and which can then be a source of pride,” Akinterinwa said.