Why France can’t be Nigeria’s strategic partner (IX)

Most small countries in the world prefer a ‘neutral, shop around approach’ to vassalship. For example, especially in recent times, the foreign policy of my own country, Sierra Leone, is heavily transactional as it tries to be in the good books of most big players and blocs in its search for aid and investments. This […]

Most small countries in the world prefer a ‘neutral, shop around approach’ to vassalship. For example, especially in recent times, the foreign policy of my own country, Sierra Leone, is heavily transactional as it tries to be in the good books of most big players and blocs in its search for aid and investments.

This transactional approach even means repudiating longstanding African Union policy positions, such as, before Israel’s genocidal carnage in Gaza, declaring its intention to open an embassy in Jerusalem; and its controversial decision to recognise Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara as demanded by Morocco and the US. Meanwhile, Sierra Leone also has good relations with China, Turkey, Russia, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, apart from its long-established relations with the EU and UK.

Since small inconsequential states lack ambitions to be great powers, they treat the world system as a marketplace that doesn’t require values, strategic goals or principles to transact business in. So, one of the pitfalls of transactionalism in foreign policy for states that harbour regional power ambitions is that there is a high risk that they will be reduced to small states—big in size and resources but small on the world stage.

It is important to stress that size on its own is not sufficient for a state to enjoy the status of a big or regional power. Adekeye Adebajo, in his edited book with Abdul Raufu Mustapha, described Nigeria in discussing its foreign policy as “a giant with clay feet” or Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver who was overwhelmed by the Lilliputians.

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The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is more than seven times the size of Rwanda and about eight times it’s GDP, but political dysfunction in the DRC has allowed Rwanda to turn Eastern DRC into its playground. Based on recent international reports, the Rwandan government, acting through its M23 militia, is allegedly stoking instability and insecurity in that region without an effective response from Kinshasa.

The second problem with a transactional approach to foreign policy is that it may expose practitioners of such policies to high levels of corruption and illicit activities, especially if such activities are already embedded in their countries. The foreign policy practitioners of transactional states may engage in deals that primarily serve their self-interests instead of the national interest; and even when projects may be good for their countries, their costs may be inflated through bribes paid to state officials that are responsible for sealing the deals.

A more worrying problem is illicit transactions—such as drug and human trafficking, as well as money laundering. Two big diplomatic scandals have been unfolding in Sierra Leone in the past month, in which high-level state officials have been implicated in the trafficking of cocaine.

The first is the interception of the Sierra Leonean ambassador to Guinea’s diplomatic vehicle in Guinea carrying seven suitcases of cocaine; and the second involves the sighting in Sierra Leone, of Europe’s most wanted drug criminal, Jos Leijdekkers, who has been sentenced to a prison term of 24 years in the Netherlands for trafficking seven tons of cocaine to Europe.

He was videoed in a church service at the president’s hometown sitting with the president’s daughter (who is believed to be romantically linked with him) two rows behind the president; and at a farm in the same town participating – with the president, his wife and villagers – in rice harvesting.

Conclusion

Nigeria’s foreign policy seems to have become more transactional than strategic in recent years. This has been justified by some scholars and pundits as pragmatism, which they argue is necessary in a complex and changing world. We have shown that pragmatism is a poor guide for understanding the foreign policies of states, since all states act pragmatically in the world system.

Understanding the power resources of states, their geographical location, and interests is crucial in the study of foreign policy. Nigeria and France have historically been locked in a power struggle for control of the West African region. As the largest and richest economy in the sub-region, Nigeria has, especially after the oil boom of the early 1970s, pursued an expansionist foreign policy through the medium of ECOWAS to advance its development and wean the Francophone West African states from France.

France’s strategic interests in West Africa are largely tied to its higher strategic goal of remaining a global power. Since it’s not located in the region, which would have allowed it to expand its influence as the richer and more powerful country, it practices a policy of containment against Nigeria to maintain its neo-colonial hold on its ex-colonies.

Nigeria’s internal political dysfunction, economic troubles and drift towards a transactional foreign policy have tilted the power balance in the region in favour of France. Nigeria has failed to exploit the recent military and diplomatic setbacks by France in the region, preferring instead to fully embrace France as a partner. France benefits considerably from this rapprochement and the seeming breakup of the ECOWAS. The breakup of ECOWAS prevents the AES countries, which are trying to move away from France, from pivoting to Nigeria.

As an aspiring regional power, Nigeria should be wary of two major pitfalls of transactionalism in foreign policy: a slide into the status of a small state and its treatment as such by the big powers; and the danger of transactionalism pushing the state to the seamy or illicit domains of international relations. Concluded

 

Bangura wrote from Nyon, Switzerland [email protected]