Banner Online News

By Babafemi Ojudu

I grew up knowing what Nigeria stood for in the world.

I came of age when our opposition to apartheid was not merely a line in a diplomatic communiqué but a national commitment. Nigeria devoted money, influence and political capital to the liberation of Southern Africa. We supported freedom fighters, offered scholarships to their children and confronted powerful countries whose economic interests were tied to apartheid.

We were not a superpower, but we possessed a sense of mission. We believed that our size, population, resources and history imposed responsibilities upon us. We regarded the freedom of Africa as inseparable from our own dignity.

Today, however, Nigeria’s foreign-policy direction is more difficult to define.

The present administration has announced the 4D Foreign Policy Doctrine: Democracy, Development, Demography and Diaspora. These are admirable principles. But a doctrine cannot live by alliteration alone.

What does “Development” mean in practical terms? How many Nigerian youths will be trained through our diplomatic partnerships? What technologies are we seeking from particular countries? What industries do we intend to establish? What markets are our embassies expected to open for Nigerian products? How will “Demography” become an asset rather than a diplomatic description of a large population overwhelmed by unemployment?

A foreign policy becomes meaningful only when ordinary citizens can see its connection to their lives.

When Nigeria Knew What It Wanted

At independence, Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and his Foreign Affairs Minister, Jaja Wachuku, established the foundations of Nigeria’s external relations: African unity, peaceful coexistence, non-alignment, multilateralism and opposition to colonialism and racial domination.

Under General Yakubu Gowon, Nigeria helped to establish the Economic Community of West African States, recognising that our security and prosperity were tied to those of our neighbours.

The Murtala Muhammed–Olusegun Obasanjo administration gave Nigerian foreign policy its most assertive expression. Murtala Muhammed’s declaration that “Africa has come of age” was more than rhetoric. Nigeria opposed external interference in Angola, supported liberation movements and became a frontline state in the struggles against colonialism and apartheid.

FESTAC ’77 extended that influence into cultural diplomacy, bringing together Black and African artists, writers and intellectuals from across the world. Nigeria was demonstrating that power could also be projected through culture and a shared civilisation.

In later years, Professor Ibrahim Gambari articulated the concentric-circles approach: Nigeria and its immediate neighbours first, West Africa next, the rest of Africa after that, and then the wider international community.

Professor Bolaji Akinyemi introduced intellectual boldness through such initiatives as the Concert of Medium Powers. The Technical Aid Corps projected Nigerian expertise by sending doctors, teachers, engineers and other professionals to African, Caribbean and Pacific countries.

General Ike Nwachukwu promoted economic diplomacy, arguing that our embassies should attract investment and advance Nigeria’s commercial interests. Chief Ojo Maduekwe later advocated citizen diplomacy, placing the dignity and welfare of Nigerians abroad closer to the centre of our foreign relations.

These doctrines were not perfect, and their implementation was often inconsistent. Nevertheless, they represented identifiable ideas. Nigerians understood the interests they were intended to advance.

From Liberation Diplomacy to Production Diplomacy

The great African struggle of the twentieth century was political liberation. Nigeria played an honourable role in that struggle.

The great struggle of the twenty-first century is economic and technological liberation. Nigeria must again place itself at the head of that struggle.

Our foreign policy should therefore be reorganised around what I call production diplomacy: a deliberate strategy for acquiring skills, transferring technology, building industries, expanding exports and creating employment.

Millions of young Nigerians are willing to work but lack the skills, tools and opportunities required to become productive. At the same time, we maintain embassies and high commissions across the world, often without clearly defined economic or technological assignments.

Every Nigerian diplomatic mission should have a national development mandate. Our ambassadors should not merely attend receptions, send reports to Abuja and organise ceremonial visits. Each mission should have measurable targets for training, technology transfer, investment, market access and industrial partnerships.

Our diplomacy should begin with two simple questions: What does Nigeria need, and which country has mastered it?

China has demonstrated how millions of citizens can be integrated into production through industrial clusters, cottage manufacturing, shared facilities and export networks. Nigeria should negotiate programmes to train young people in machine operation, toolmaking, textiles, food processing, furniture production, ceramics, electrical equipment and solar-component assembly.

Such agreements must include provisions for Nigerian apprenticeships, technology transfer, local production and progressively increasing local content. The goal should not be the permanent importation of Chinese goods, but the acquisition of the knowledge and machinery required to produce those goods locally.

Germany’s dual vocational system, which combines classroom education with practical apprenticeships, can be adapted to construction, mechanical engineering, electrical installation, mechatronics and automotive maintenance. Japan and South Korea can assist with machine tools, electronics, precision engineering and industrial production management.

The Scandinavian countries offer valuable experience in technical education, renewable energy, waste management, water systems, fisheries and effective local government. Our partnerships with them should establish vocational academies, train instructors and equip technical colleges.

Nigeria does not need more seminars in expensive hotels. We need workshops, instructors, equipment and measurable numbers of trained people.

Israel and the Netherlands can support the modernisation of Nigerian agriculture. Israel has expertise in irrigation, water management and dry-land farming, while the Netherlands has achieved extraordinary productivity through greenhouse farming, agricultural research, logistics and efficient land use.

We should establish demonstration farms, irrigation academies, agricultural machinery centres and post-harvest facilities across Nigeria. Agriculture must become an enterprise supported by science, processing, packaging, cold storage and access to markets—not a punishment reserved for the poor.

India should be a major partner in pharmaceutical manufacturing, affordable healthcare, information technology and digital public infrastructure. Nigeria imports too many medicines and medical supplies that could be produced locally. Our diplomacy should promote joint ventures for the local manufacture of generic drugs, vaccines, diagnostic equipment and other essential products.

Brazil offers useful lessons in civil aviation, aircraft maintenance, biofuels and tropical agriculture. Its success in building Embraer shows that a developing country can create a globally competitive aviation industry. Nigeria should pursue long-term partnerships in aircraft maintenance, component manufacturing and technical education.

Türkiye has made significant progress in aviation, drone technology and defence manufacturing. Ukraine, despite the devastation of war, has acquired extensive practical experience in adapting drones for surveillance, logistics and defence.

Nigeria should pursue carefully regulated partnerships to train engineers in the design, assembly, programming and maintenance of civilian drones. These can be used for crop monitoring, mapping, pipeline surveillance, search-and-rescue operations and the delivery of medicines to remote communities.

The purpose of these partnerships must be the creation of Nigerian-owned skills, enterprises and industries—not merely the distribution of certificates.

Africa Must Remain Central—But on New Terms

Production diplomacy does not require Nigeria to abandon Africa. It requires us to redefine African leadership.

In the past, Nigeria demonstrated leadership by helping to liberate African countries. Today, leadership should mean building regional supply chains, expanding intra-African trade, stabilising West Africa, developing cross-border infrastructure and giving practical meaning to the African Continental Free Trade Area.

A Nigerian textile industry should obtain cotton from neighbouring countries and sell finished garments across the continent. Our refineries and petrochemical industries should supply regional markets. Our banks, creative industries, technology companies, universities and transport firms should become instruments of African integration.

The Technical Aid Corps should also be modernised. Alongside doctors and teachers, Nigeria should deploy software developers, agricultural specialists, renewable-energy technicians, creative professionals and entrepreneurship trainers.

We should continue to give, but we must also learn to negotiate. Goodwill is valuable, but foreign policy is not philanthropy. Every partnership must offer legitimate and reciprocal benefits.

Diplomats With Assignments

A serious foreign policy cannot be implemented through political patronage.

Our embassies must not become retirement homes for exhausted politicians or rewards for party loyalists. Appointments should be based on competence and the requirements of each posting.

If our mission in the Netherlands is expected to secure agricultural partnerships, its leadership and commercial team should understand agriculture, technology and investment. If Türkiye is central to our aviation and drone strategy, the mission there must include people capable of understanding and negotiating in those sectors.

Every ambassador should receive a written performance mandate. Success should be measured by:

* the number of Nigerians trained;
* technologies transferred;
* investments attracted and implemented;
* markets opened to Nigerian businesses;
* scholarships and apprenticeships secured;
* Nigerian citizens protected; and
* partnerships converted into functioning enterprises.

Annual performance reports should be made public. Diplomacy financed by the Nigerian people must produce results for the Nigerian people.

A Foreign Policy Nigerians Can Understand

Nigeria does not need another elegant slogan that disappears with the administration that created it. We need a foreign-policy consensus capable of lasting at least twenty years.

The 4D doctrine can provide a useful starting point, but its Development and Demography pillars must be given practical content. Our population should not merely be cited in speeches as evidence of our importance. It must become skilled, productive and internationally competitive.

Our foreign policy should be stated in language every Nigerian can understand:

Nigeria will use its relationships with the world to acquire knowledge, develop skills, build productive capacity, create jobs, protect its citizens, secure markets and strengthen Africa.

In the past, we helped to free Africa from colonial rule and apartheid. That history should remain a source of pride. But yesterday’s victories cannot substitute for today’s purpose.

The freedom fighter of this era is the young Nigerian who can manufacture a machine part, build a drone for delivering medicines, install a solar-energy system, maintain an aircraft, process food for export or construct a house to international standards.

The diplomacy of the future must put tools in that young person’s hands.

That is how Nigeria will recover its voice in the world—not through ceremonial visibility, expensive delegations or vague declarations, but by converting every friendship into knowledge, every diplomatic mission into opportunity and every international engagement into an instrument of national transformation.