While studying for my postgraduate degree in International Relations at ABU in its glorious years, we were inundated with factual narratives of how the mid 1970s – particularly during the Murtala-Obasanjo military administration was widely acknowledged as the golden age of Nigerian foreign policy!
Nigeria was widely respected across the world for its principled stance on the generational tussle between the two superpowers of the time at extreme opposites of the ideological divide between the forces of communism and unbridled capitalism.
Nigeria was a respected member of the Non-Alligned Movement along with India and the rest. We also enjoyed honorary status as one of the “Frontline States” on the basis of our valiant role in the liberation struggles across Africa and beyond.
Developing countries as far as the Caribbean drew inspiration from the responsible leadership role we projected. Not anymore.
Today; if Murtala Muhammad were to come back to life, he would be shocked at what has become of his beloved Nigeria and its foreign policy.
He will struggle to understand why his beloved Nigeria – the most populous black nation in the world and also one that fought to liberate countries in the southern tip of the continent is not today also in the trenches with South Africa in the case the latter has brought before the International Criminal Court (ICJ) on Israel’s ongoing relentless genocide in Gaza.
Even so; as embarrassing as our shocking abdication of leadership and responsibility on the continent may be; what is even more baffling is what, in my candid opinion, amounts to our ‘criminal’ inability to see how damaging our inaction could be to our global aspirations as a nation of repute for the foreseeable future.
Surely, tomorrow, when the decision is finally taken to expand the permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council to include an African country, South Africa will be the name on everyone’s lips, not Nigeria.
Along with the leverage its leadership role in BRICS portends; its 84 petition before the ICJ will count among its strongest credentials along with the unwavering support and admiration of most neutral observers across the world and the countries in the global south.
When the chips are down, Nigeria will have neither the moral or diplomatic wherewithal to contest the post with South Africa.
What will also be beyond dispute is that our much trumpeted status as the richest and most populous nation in Africa will count for nothing. We have essentially forfeited the privileges and respect such lofty statistics conferred on us at independence. And we did it to ourselves largely due to our individual and collective dis-inclination to embrace the big picture at the most crucial moments in our history.
