Nigeria's Foreign Policy, 2007-2017: Political Leadership and the Outcomes of Foreign Policy Transactions

Abstract

2007 to 2017 marked ten years of successful transition to democratic governance in Nigeria, which had been ruled by the military for more than 16 years at a stretch after it took over power in 1983. The military administration had plunged the country into poverty, dilapidated and inadequate infrastructures, low economic performance, battered international image and total loss of international friendship with her former allies. Nigeria was returned to democracy in 1999, with the first civilian administration successfully handing over power to another civilian government in 2007. From 2007 to 2017, Nigeria had witnessed the administration of three presidents in Nigeria. These presidents had formulated different foreign policy thrusts to address the issues facing the country; however, the challenges of poverty and insecurity were still staring straight at Nigerians in their faces. Meanwhile, the literature was replete with the assumption that Nigeria's foreign policy from 2007 to 2017 did not performed well. The study adopted poor leadership as an independent variable to investigate the non performance of Nigeria's foreign policy from 2007 to 2017, which is the dependent variable. Using the two-level game theory and linkage theory as theoretical framework, the study found that corruption, poor handling of civil dissatisfaction/agitations and insecurity portrayed leadership failure on the parts of these leaders; which by extension forestalled a couple of important bilateral agreements in favour of the Nigerian government.