Citizen Diplomacy and Development: Re-evaluating Nigeria's Afrocentric Foreign Policies for Sustainable Peace in West Africa

Abstract

Recent events on the African continent show that the Nigerian government has played significant hegemonic roles in the African region without really paying adequate attention to her internal domestic contradictions. To many observers, this kind of big brother gesture by the Nigerian government has fetched the Nigerian state almost nothing. The nation is therefore challenged by increasing poverty, unemployment, corruption and general economic problems. Of particular importance to this study is the poor international image some of these problems have created for the country and its people outside the shores of Africa generally. This study has therefore sought to unravel some of these challenges through deeper investigations to be able to frontally tackle the issues. This study is an exploratory research, and has essentially employed content analysis as sources of data collection and method of investigation. The paper discovered that the Nigerian problems rests squarely on her inability to vigorously confront her domestic economic and political maladies, which in turn impinges on the attempt at resolving her reputation and international image abroad. To this end, there are copious suggestions in the study, which forms credible aspects of the attempt to move the nation and her people forward, and restore her pride of place within the confines of the national polity and regain her international reputation overseas.