Democratizing the Nigerian Foreign Policy Process: An Inquest for Recipes

Folarin, S. F. (2011) Democratizing the Nigerian Foreign Policy Process: An Inquest for Recipes. Democratizing the Nigerian Foreign Policy Process: An Inquest for Recipes, 1 (1). pp. 61-69.

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Abstract

Democratizing many of Nigeria’s political institutions, structures, and processes has been a general clamor in the polity for the past ten years of return to civil rule. This is an obvious reaction to the decades of militarization of the system, which has led to very poor administration of civil-based structures. One of the worrisome areas is the foreign policy environment of Nigeria, which even between 1999 and now, has witnessed the personalization and personification of the processes by the chief executive in his “kitchen cabinet”. Civil society and indeed citizens have had little or no role to play in the decision-making of Nigeria’s external affairs (cases abound, including the ceding of Bakassi to Cameroon). But in democracy, citizens’ opinions, desires, expectations, and interests should count. Indeed, citizens have a major role to play in the diplomacy of contemporary times, as typified by the United States. Based on the author’s intense participation-observation across the American foreign policy terrains in a special Fulbright program, this paper explores the American foreign policy environment, and offers policy recipes for Nigeria in genuine democratization of its diplomatic environment

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Democratization, Civil Society, Foreign Policy, Citizen Diplomacy
Subjects:	J Political Science > JA Political science (General) J Political Science > JZ International relations
Divisions:	Faculty of Law, Arts and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences
Depositing User:	Mr Solomon Bayoko
Date Deposited:	07 Jan 2015 21:29
Last Modified:	26 Jun 2017 13:09
URI:	http://eprints.covenantuniversity.edu.ng/id/eprint/3248

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