Nigeria’s National Image and Her Foreign Policy: An Exploratory Approach

Abstract

The task of this paper is to critically appraise the relationship between Nigeria’s national image and her foreign policy since independence. In doing this, it embarked on a historical and analytical examination of the contradictions that are embedded in Nigeria’s foreign policy and their fundamental link to the country’s domestic crisis. The article observes that Nigeria’s foreign policy over the years has been grossly sabotaged and undermined by image crisis both nationally and internationally. Relying heavily on secondary data, and anchored fundamentally on the role theory as a framework of analysis, the paper argues that Nigeria’s role expectations at different “concentric circles” of her foreign policy have generated multiple role perceptions, thus leading to unintended role conflict. The direct implication of this is confusion and dissonance in the domestic institutional and constitutional mechanisms that impel foreign policy formulation and implementation. Consequently, the paper concludes that resolution of the distortions embedded in the country’s foreign policy is the only panacea to resolving her national and international image crisis. It therefore, canvasses an imperative need for Nigeria to transform her convoluted foreign policy, redirect her diplomatic compass and re-align her foreign policy architecture to reflect the demands of a globalizing world.