How Nigeria fared in foreign relations in 2016
In 2016, President Muhammadu Buhari continued his diplomatic shuttles across the world to push Nigeria’s foreign policy and draw support from the international community in addressing the country’s domestic challenges. A nation’s foreign policy is the extension of its domestic policy and President Buhari had outlined the areas of security, economy and fighting corruption […]
In 2016, President Muhammadu Buhari continued his diplomatic shuttles across the world to push Nigeria’s foreign policy and draw support from the international community in addressing the country’s domestic challenges.
A nation’s foreign policy is the extension of its domestic policy and President Buhari had outlined the areas of security, economy and fighting corruption as three priorities of his administration.
On several bilateral and multi-lateral meetings, these issues dominated Buhari’s international engagements, which analysts categorized into two segments.
The first included trips to countries in Western Europe, United States and Asia where Nigeria is hoping to get help reviving its economic situation, said a retired diplomat, Ambassador Suleiman Dahiru.
The second, he added, was to Nigeria’s neighbouring countries in the Lake Chad to have a coordinated approach in combating terrorism in the region.
The president, on January 19, 2016 was in United Arab Emirates, where he signed agreements with the host country on recovery and repatriation of stolen funds and extradition of culpable officials.
After signing of the pacts, Buhari reiterated his government’s commitment to fighting corruption and also called on all Islamic countries to support the fight against terrorism in Nigeria and denounce the activities of Boko Haram as un-Islamic.
The Nigerian leader also chaired the Peace and Security Council meeting at the 26th AU Summit held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Talks at the meeting largely focused on security challenges in the Lake Chad Basin as well as crises in South Sudan and Burundi.
On February 3, 2016, the president, addressed the special session of the European Union Parliament in Strasburg, France with regards to the global fight against terrorism, extremism and corruption.
The following day, Buhari jetted to London for the “Supporting Syria and The Region Conference” co-hosted by Britain, Germany, Norway, Kuwait and the United Nations.
At the conference, the president pushed for more global understanding, collaboration and support for Nigeria and other countries in the front lines of the war against terrorism.
On February 19, 2016 Buhari participated in the Business for Africa, Egypt and the World forum held in Sharm El-sheikh, Egypt where he also addressed the audience about the impact of dwindling oil price on Nigeria as a mono-product economy reliant on revenue from crude oil sales.
On the sideline of the event, Buhari, alongside a handful of other top government officials, held bilateral meeting with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Discussions focused on Nigeria’s security challenges borrowing from Egypt’s experience in tackling insurgency in the recent past.
He also visited Saudi Arabia and Qatar on February 22 and 29 respectively to push for the stability of the falling oil price in the international market, which has significantly affected Nigeria’s revenues.
During Buhari’s visit to Malabo in March 2016, Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea signed an agreement for the establishment of a combined maritime policing and security patrol committee. The pact was aimed at curbing maritime crimes such as piracy, crude oil theft, sabotage of oil rigs and arms smuggling in the Niger Delta and Gulf of Guinea.
At the plenary sessions of the 4th Nuclear Security summit in Washington DC, United States, the Nigerian president told world powers to respect the “indisputable” right of Nigeria and other countries to harness nuclear energy and technology for socio-economic development.
While the president was being criticize for his frequent foreign trips, his visit to China in April was praised because it yielded $6 billion dollars additional investments to Nigeria, according to Buhari’s media aide, Garba Shehu.
He said the several agreements concluded with China would have a huge and positive impact on key sectors of the Nigerian economy including power, solid minerals, agriculture, housing and rail transportation.
On the eve of Anti-Corruption summit in London, May 11, 2016, Buhari demanded that Britain return looted assets starched in the country by corrupt Nigerians, pointing the finger back at London after former prime minister, David Cameron said Nigeria was "fantastically corrupt".
President Buhari and his German counterpart, Angela Merkel on October 13, 2016, held bilateral talks to increase economic and military ties between both countries.
The president, on November 16, 2016, addressed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP-22) in Marrakech, Morocco, where he also held bilateral meetings with Moroccan King, Mohammed VI on the sideline.
This was followed by the King’s visit to Abuja where both leaders signed 15 bilateral agreements.
In the Gambia, Buhari, alongside other ECOWAS leaders, was in that country to settle the political impasse following the outcome of the December 1, 2016 presidential election which incumbent Yahya Jammeh lost to the opposition leader, Adama Barrow.
These engagements of the president, experts said, have been largely successful in drawing supports from the international community in addressing Nigeria’s domestic problems.
While the success could be visible in areas of security with the recent capture of the Boko Haram stronghold in the Sambisa Forest, Nigerians are yet to see the results of Buhari’s foreign engagements in reviving the nation’s dwindling economy, which experts said could even take a much longer time to manifest.
“For the economic situation, we have to admit that when economy goes down, it is not easy to get it out of the woods as quickly as possible,” Ambassador Dahiru said.
Efforts made by the president in his diplomatic shuttles to lift the economy out of its current woes however appear to be in the vacuum as there are no substantive ambassadors in place to follow up most of his dealings with world leaders.
If economically, the success has not been much visible, Dahiru said it was simply because Nigeria has no substantive ambassadors to pursue whatever economic advantages that would have accrued to the country from the president’s trips.
“The president should have appointed ambassadors to key European and Asian countries so that whatever he is able to agree with those countries, the ambassadors will pursue them and ensure that Nigeria get maximum benefit from them,” he noted.
According to Omo-Oba Abd. Rasheed Adesokan, a foreign policy analyst, the president’s international engagements have given rise to intelligence sharing between Nigerian armed forces and its foreign partners.
He argued that in the international arena, the person-to-person contact at the head of state level is key in achieving foreign policy objectives.
“The public is not in a position to know but actually, they are sharing intelligence with the Nigerian armed forces. That accounts for the recent successes in the war against terror.
“We are making progress and the government is getting support from the international community. But People do not know and because they don’t or the government does not shout about it does not mean they are not there,” he said.
No better representative at int’l arena than the president – Lolo
For Ambassador Bulus Lolo, former permanent secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the president has done the right thing by leading Nigerian delegation to places that matter.
He said the several international functions Buhari had attended, no one better represent Nigeria there than the president because a representative may not bring about the desired results that we expect in the country.
Lolo noted that though the task of addressing the country’s domestic problems rests on the government, Nigeria needs a conducive international environment to achieve them.
“You cannot expect somebody from outside to tackle your domestic challenges, to diversify your economy or address the security problems. These are the things we need to do for ourselves,” he said.
Nigerians will soon see the benefit – Kaave
With one year and some months into his government, it is rather too early and quick to make a physical appraisal of Buhari’s administration, said a retired diplomat, Ambassador Chive Kaave.
According to him, though the president’s foreign international engagements have been to reassure Nigeria’s partners in the world of his administration’s commitment to democracy, transparency and the fundamental freedom of the individual citizen, Kaave expressed optimism that Nigerians would soon begin counting the benefit of Buhari’s shuttle diplomacies on their table.