Authors
Okorocha, Matthew
Department of Political Science
Faculty of Social Sciences
Abia State University, Uturu
Ndukwe, Kalu
Department of Political Science
Faculty of Social Sciences
Abia State University, Uturu
Abstract
Historically, the trajectory of articulating and
implementing Nigeria’s foreign policy has been shaped
by both civilian and military regimes. Essentially,
foreign policy serves as the dual purpose of defining and guiding external relations of states or national
governments in the promotion and realization of their
national interests in the international arena. Foreign
policy emphasizes the interaction that consistently goes
on between state actors and non-state actors. The modes
of interaction in the pursuit of a state’s foreign policy
objectives have occasionally remained cooperative,
conflictual and competitive. The hallmark of foreign
policy obviously lies in the fact that it is internally
formulated and externally projected and implemented,
hence, the national interests of states are paramount in
promoting their prestige, image and perception. Again,
the foreign policy of a state is actually an extension of its
domestic policy to be applied globally. From this
perspective, the paper comparatively reappraises
Nigeria’s foreign policy and the extent to which it
contributed to the realization of her national image under
the presidencies of Goodluck Jonathan (2011-2015) and
Muhammadu Buhari (2015-2019), using the rational
actor model in analyzing the data generated from
secondary sources. It basically accentuated on some very
remarkable achievements of Nigeria’s foreign policy and
how they positively impacted on Nigeria’s national
image against all odds under the period of review. The
paper recommends the continuity of good governance
and public policies by successive administrations as a
way of consolidating Nigeria’s foreign policy achievements and gains for the continued advancement
of her positive national image.
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