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Nigeria 'needs' new image
11/02/2008 15:33 - (SA)
Abuja - Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, with all its oil wealth, has a poor image that its foreign minister is determined to tackle.
Foreign Minister Ojo Maduekwe wanted his country to overcome a reputation for corruption, rigged elections, democracy shortfalls, email scams and military rule to get its message of "citizen diplomacy" across.
The Nigerian administration has to improve its "performance at home in order to market Nigeria outside," he said.
Foreign affairs policy
"We therefore need a foreign affairs policy that will settle this image problem."
"What we're trying to do is to say that, by its geography, its history and its culture, Nigeria, with its 140 million inhabitants, is Africa's biggest country, that one African out of five is Nigerian and that, logically, Africa is at the centre of our foreign policy," the minister said.
Nigeria's frustration was highlighted by a recent editorial in The Guardian daily.
"The arrogance towards and the disdain for Nigerians by the American, the British, and several other embassies is simply outrageous," it said, expressing indignation that United States President George W Bush had not included Nigeria on an Africa tour this month.
Many western diplomats complained of the difficulty in convincing ministers from their countries to visit one of the continent's most important countries.
"They aren't exactly queuing up to come here," commented one.
Oil wealth
But a series of military rulers, a corrupt elite and even Nigeria's oil wealth had combined to taint Nigeria's image.
Petroleum and gas had over the past 50 years brought in a vast fortune for the country, which no longer shared the same pressing concerns of its poorer African neighbours.
A striking example was the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), setting out trade regimes, between the European Union and Africa, which would this year replace previous conventions.
These agreements were vital for some countries, especially in west Africa. But because of its oil wealth, they were only of marginal interest for Nigeria, a key member of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas).
Nigeria had tended to criticise other Ecowas members, such as Ghana and Ivory Coast, who had signed separate temporary agreements.
Nigeria was also the fifth largest oil supplier to the US and this had made it a prime beneficiary of benefits under the US African Growth and Opportunity Act.
Washington's criticism of the 2007 presidential and legislative elections in Nigeria was not very strong.
"It's as if the mere fact of having oil allows Nigeria to dispense with a foreign policy and still have everyone on its side," said an opposition politician, who asked not to be identified.
Oil gave Nigeria the strength to say what it did not want, whether in the shape of agreements with Europe that it considered unbalanced or a US military presence in the region, one diplomat said.
US African military command
The US administration had been searching for more than a year for a base in Africa for the US African military command, AFRICOM, which is currently in Stuttgart, Germany. Nigeria and other countries had declined.
Protecting the oil rich Gulf of Guinea was considered a strategic security question for the US.
By 2015 the region would provide 25% of US oil imports.
President Umaru Yar'Adua said last November he would not agree to a US base in the region.
Another handicap for Nigeria, which saw itself as a rival to South Africa on the international political stage, was 30 years of military regimes since independence and elections marred by fraud and violence.
Nigeria's foreign affairs policy was most visible in Africa through the peacekeepers it has sent across Africa - from Sierra Leone a few years back, to Darfur today and soon to Somalia.
"Our peacekeeping operations are an essential element of our foreign affairs policy," Maduekwe explained.
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