By Owei Lakemfa
Ambassador Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, the Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs, stepped out on Thursday December 21, 2023 to explain to Nigerians the four-dimensional space built by the Tinubu administration for the country’s foreign policy. Tuggar, 56, a player in the oil and gas industry had in the last six years, been Nigeria’s Ambassador to Germany.
This opportunity of
a wide audience including the diplomatic community, intellectuals, active and
retired public servants to examine the new policy, was
provided by the ever thoughtful and visionary Association of Retired Career
Ambassadors of Nigeria, ARCAN.
The ARCAN, led by Ambassador John Kayode Shinkaiye, one of the country’s greats in African diplomacy, asked me to chair the occasion which had the succinct theme: ‘The Foreign Policy Agenda under Tinubu Administration.’
Ambassador Shinkaiye said ARCAN
decided to organise the programme because: “the formulation and execution of
the foreign policy of the country is crucial as decisions made in this
aspect of the Nation’s governance have far reaching implications for
Nigeria, the West Africa region, the African continent, and even beyond.”
He said it is therefore
important that the new government: “sets appropriate priorities and
strategies and identify potential challenges that the government may
face.” The country’s foreign policy, he posited, will be shaped by among other
things: “a combination of domestic factors and imperatives, regional dynamics
and global realities.” He added that understanding how these factors can affect
issues like security, economic cooperation and foreign relations is very
important to the success of the administration.
In my remarks as chairman, I
said we must constantly assess and reassess our foreign policy because
everything is in flux and nothing should be taken for granted.
Even warfare, I pointed out, has
changed: “Fifty six years ago, it took Israel just six days to
defeat the combined armed forces of Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Palestine.
In those six days, Israel captured Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, Syria’s
Golan Heights, the Palestinian Old Jerusalem, West Bank and Gaza. Today, a
stronger, better equipped, experienced and technology-driven Israel,
fighting just a single Palestinian group, the Hamas, has in 78 days been unable
to fully capture Northern Gaza.”
I argued that while the 4-D
Foreign Policy; Demography, Development, Diaspora and Democracy, are
commendable, they need to be thoroughly scrutinised. For instance, should the
Diaspora component remain a separate entity or be part of our Foreign
Ministry?
The Presidency, I pointed out,
is so huge, and the daily, if not hourly challenges it faces, are so enormous,
that: “it cannot effectively be the engine room of our foreign policy. That
engine room, should be the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”
I posited that building an
effective Nigerian foreign policy requires four things. First, ensuring
the welfare of Nigerians. Secondly, guaranteeing the security of Nigeria
and Nigerians. Thirdly, building a strong economy and currency, and
fourthly, defending and promoting the first three.
In conclusion, I suggested the holding of an all-inclusive retreat
as was done at the April 1986 All-Nigeria Conference on Foreign Policy
in Kuru in which all segments of society participated. I
submitted that such a retreat will provide a Road Map with practical
recommendations that will guide us, our incoming Ambassadors and Diplomatic
outposts, not just for the next four years, but extending
beyond the Tinubu administration.
Minister Tuggar submitted that:
“With regards to Nigeria’s foreign policy objectives, they exist and remain
immovable because they are enshrined in our Constitution; they are, in
summary, to promote and protect Nigeria’s national interest, to promote African
integration and support African unity, promote international co-operation
for the consolidation of universal peace and mutual respect among all
nations and elimination of discrimination in all its manifestations.”
He added that the Renewed
Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu further elucidated three objectives:
“to protect against all forms of external aggression; promote the best
possible outcomes for Nigeria in all engagements with other nations;
improve Nigeria’s standing and dignity among the comity of Nations.”
Tuggar revealed that it is the
constitutional provisions and these triple objectives of the Agenda, that were
used to construct the 4-D Diplomacy Agenda of the new administration.
In breaking down the Agenda,
Tuggar explained: “When we say Democracy, we are referring to a pathway to
enhanced peace and stability in Africa and around the world.” He said
unconstitutional changes in government: “calls for proactive diplomacy in
order to reverse the trend and restore peace.”
Democracy in global institutions
he argued, requires working for Nigeria’s permanent membership of the
UNSC, G20 and all other relevant groupings where democratic norms, size
of population and size of the economy ought to be the yardstick for
membership.”
Development he said, seeks to
use diplomacy to: “achieve double digit growth for Nigeria by combining
Agriculture, Infrastructure and Industrialisation. Attracting foreign
investment in agriculture would help to close the gap between metro and rural
areas and a bifurcation that contributes to Nigeria’s poor showing on the
poverty index.”
Ambassador Tuggar said we must
use the demographic advantage of our youth bulge to generate income and
growth, and leapfrog by using: “technology to skip certain stages and
fast-track development.”
On Diaspora, he said: “Our
approach is to ensure that we are not working in silos and I am happy to
say that the agencies under the ministry have fully integrated the 4-Ds into
their programmes.”
Emeritus Professor Anthony Ashiwaju
who pointed out that there is an intersection between development and
demography, said foreign policy ought to take a special note of boundaries.
Ambassador Olusola
Enikanolaiye, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign
Affairs clarified that the Foreign Ministry is necessarily an extension
of the Presidency; the Diaspora cannot be run without the Ministry, and that
there is the need for synergy by all with the Foreign Ministry as a
co-ordinating agency.
Dr. Timiebi Koripamo-Agary,
Permanent Secretary of Labour under the Obasanjo Presidency and Information and
Culture in the Yar’Adua administration, hoped that under the D-4 Foreign
Policy Agenda, there would be strong financial support of our
foreign missions and embassies. Agary said she had been to a
number of Nigerian Missions, and in some cases, the diplomats do not get their
allowances on time, sometimes stretching for months. For any foreign policy to
succeed, she argued, the diplomats and staff must be adequately, properly
and timeously compensated.
Minister Tuggar responded that
the funding issue is being addressed and that some days before, the
Foreign, Budget and Planning Ministries and the Wages and Salaries
Commission met on ensuring adequate funding for the foreign Missions. He said
security is fundamental to ensuring a good foreign policy but that the
failure of the local government system due to interferences by some governors,
has seriously affected security in the country.
*Lakemfa
is a commentator on public issues
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