CHAPTER TWO
2.5 Conceptualizing Citizen Diplomacy
It can be argued that a country‟s interventionist role in conflicts is often predicated on its belief in, respect for and commitment to the sanctity of internal cohesion and national unity.
Consequently, Nigeria‟s Africa-driven ideology that seeks to create a just, happy and egalitarian society is not limited to the country itself, but extends to its contiguous states and the African continent. This is considered to be the driving force behind its active participation in conflict resolution efforts and peace keeping missions in the Congo in 1960, Chad in 1980, and in Liberia and Sierra-Leone in 1990 and 1998 respectively.
Based on the above analysis, could the purported shift in Nigeria‟s foreign policy focus from its hitherto traditional Afro-centric posture to citizen diplomacy represent a more aggressive protection of the country‟s national interest? This question is addressed in the following section.
realization that the progress, prosperity and survival of the nation must be the concern of every Nigerian at home and in the diaspora.
In the opinion of Okocha and Nzeshi (2007:3), the central idea behind the notion of citizen diplomacy is the protection of the image, integrity and interests of Nigeria and its people, while also reacting against countries that are hostile to the Nigerian cause and that of its people, including those who brand Nigeria as corrupt. Lending credence to this assertion, Ogunsanwo (2007) advocated the need for Nigerians abroad to be at the heart of Nigeria‟s national interest; therefore the country‟s entire diplomatic machinery should be geared towards protecting them. He further pointed out that any diplomacy that does not take this into consideration will be running contrary to the basic tenets of the concept.
Maduekwe (Minister for Foreign Affairs and the progenitor of citizen diplomacy in the Olusegun Obasanjo government) provided the following justification for the change in Nigeria‟s foreign policy from an Afro-centric approach to citizen diplomacy:
Our foreign policy has come of age and the age of innocence is over. We remain proud of our track record from Tafawa Balewa up till now. The country that is the largest black Nation in the world could not have done otherwise. A world where one in every six black men in the world is a Nigerian could not have done otherwise, or where one in every four Africans is a Nigerian could not have done otherwise. We should ask ourselves some hard question: to what extent has our foreign policy benefited Nigerians? To what extent has our foreign policy put food on our tables? In other words where is the citizen in our foreign policy?
(Maduekwe, quoted in Ogunsanwo, 2007:2).
Maduekwe argued that Nigeria carries an enormous burden which requires it to be the symbol of the success of the Black nation and that there could never be a Black story, “unless it is a Nigerian success story”. Thus citizen diplomacy according to Maduekwe, implies ensuring that Nigeria‟s foreign policy becomes the most powerful way to express who Nigeria and who its people are, although he was quick to add that embracing citizen diplomacy as an external policy approach should be seen as a branding and not necessarily a total change in the fundamental principles of Nigeria‟s foreign policy. Akinterinwa (2010), however, argued for the need for citizen diplomacy to go beyond rhetoric and urged the Nigerian government to
use the policy to immediately address problems such as the refusal to grant entry visas to Nigerians who have legitimate documentation and reasons for wanting to travel, the shabby treatment Nigerians at home and abroad are confronted with and the need to ensure that Nigerian business entrepreneurs benefit from the country‟s regional and sub-regional peace- making and peace-building efforts, particularly as they relate to humanitarian aid that could be locally sourced.
It is important to note that while the Olusegun Obasanjo government, through Maduekwe, documented the existence of citizen diplomacy as a concept it never went beyond that point.
Rather, it seems to have been an attempt to show Nigerians that the government was serious about reforming the country‟s foreign policy orientation. Not much of substance could be said to have been achieved. Furthermore, the economic meltdown experienced by most countries around the world at that particular time stymied the proper implementation of the policy. Given his responsibility as a career diplomat, Maduekwe was expected to protect Nigeria‟s national interest; however, several observers of Nigeria‟s foreign policy process have argued that citizen diplomacy was very similar to the country‟s traditional Afro-centric orientation (See Adebajo, 2008; Gambari, 2008; and Osuntokun, 2008).
Another major issue which probably militated against the success of this shift in foreign policy is the lack of policy continuity and inconsistency that has been the defining characteristic of successive governments in Nigeria. Yar‟ Adua, succeeded Obasanjo spent half of his three years in office battling ill health and legal suits/a legitimacy crisis that were triggered by the alleged fraudulent electoral process that brought him to power (Adebajo, 2008:3). This was coupled with an increase in agitation spearheaded by militants from the Niger-Delta who took up arms against the state in an attempt to control the natural resources (oil) they claimed belonged to them.
This left the Yar‟ Adua administration incapacitated and unable to continue with Maduekwe‟s citizen diplomacy project. Instead, the administration appeared to revert to a foreign policy docility that a common feature during the dying days of the Abacha regime, until Yar‟ Adua passed away on May 5, 2010 after a protracted illness. President Goodluck Jonathan, who was next in command to the late president, also failed to define the pattern which Nigeria‟s foreign policy would follow in the wake of the high level politicization of the processes which led to his emergence as acting president. Armed with a fresh mandate
from the general election held in April, 2007, government indicated that the administration was set to resuscitate the economic diplomacy approach that emerged during the last years in office of the Babangida regime.