Gulliver's Troubles: Nigeria's Foreign Policy after the Cold War (review)

Gulliver's Troubles: Nigeria's Foreign Policy after the Cold War offers the first comprehensive assessment of the post–Cold War foreign policy of Nigeria, one of West Africa's consequential actors in regional politics. Contributors to this edited volume (comprising both academics and diplomats) adopted the concept of "concentric circles" to analyze Nigeria's most vital domestic challenges and critical regional/external influences from both historical and contemporary perspectives, assessing Nigeria's relations with its neighbors, with the African continent, with international organizations, and with the global powers. Because foreign policy is an extension of the domestic policy of a nation, the debates in this book, while multifaceted, share the premise that effective foreign policy must be built on a sound domestic base and democratic stability.

Nigeria's imposing position in Africa is of long standing. The significance of its size, population, and economic potential had been recognized even before independence by the British, who perceived Nigeria as likely to play a major role in Africa; as early as 1964 Claude S. Phillips stated that "Nigeria was potentially the greatest power in Africa" (The Development of Nigerian Foreign Policy [Northwestern University Press, 1964], vii). But this was the Nigeria of the 1960s; what has happened to the Nigeria of today? Between 1970 and 1990 Nigerian diplomacy was central to the mobilization of support for nationalists and antiapartheid causes in Southern Africa, and promotion of conflict resolution and democratic governance in West Africa. A country like Nigeria, with its large and dynamic population, could have an important role to play in the international system. Yet in recent years even small and weak states have been able to exercise some influence in the international system, but Nigeria has not done so. Why?

In his introduction Adebajo seeks to answer that question. "Nigeria," he writes, "the most populous country and one of the most powerful states in Africa, is a Gulliver: and the Lilliputians have been Nigeria's leaders, whose petty ambitions and often inhumane greed—like the creatures in Swift's tale—have prevented a country of enormous potential from fulfilling its leadership aspirations and development potential. The giant of Africa was in danger of becoming the midget of the world. Africa's Gulliver faced the threat of becoming the Lilliput of the globe" (2).

The book analyzes the disappointing performance of Olusegun Obasanjo as a civilian president, as well as the dismal legacy of his administration. The April 2007 election was widely believed to be the most fraudulent in the history of Nigeria. Furthermore, as Oladapo Fafowora points out in his chapter, "the pre-occupation of Nigerian leaders with domestic affairs and the country's weak economic base have often combined to impose severe constraints on the development of a well-defined and coherent foreign policy. Nigerian diplomats are themselves victims of this failure. It is the government that has ultimate responsibility for defining the country's foreign policy objectives. Nigerian diplomats are merely the tools for achieving these goals" (94).

A successful Nigerian foreign policy is dependant upon institutions such as the National Assembly, political parties, and civil society organizations, all of which need support and capacity-building. Only when such measures have been implemented and Nigerian leaders have met the other domestic, regional, and international challenges can Africa's Gulliver start to fulfill its continental leadership ambitions in the post–Cold War period. Without a doubt, Nigeria needs to review its foreign policy goals and practices, both in its intra-African politics and in its global relations—especially in the context of the challenges posed by the paradoxes of globalization. Such an institutional review must be based, of course, on the country's national interest, and this book might well represent a starting point for such a review.

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