ART AND CULTURE AS TOOL OF DIPLOMACY IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

ABSTRACT

This study of comparative analysis of Nigeria’s foreign policy under Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (1960-1966) and Murtala/Obasanjo (1975-1979) has exposed us to understand better the actors and factors that shape the country’s foreign policy. Generally, historians and political scientists regard the Murtala/Obasanjo regime (1975 – 1979) as a period that Nigeria became the “Giant of Africa” due to her confrontational foreign policy posture. Coupled with the transition programme initiated by General Murtala Mohammed and later implemented by General (Rtd.) Olusegun Obasanjo, the regime was tagged a successful one. When this is compared to the foreign policy Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, one realizes that the two different regimes pursued the same foreign policy objectives but with different approach. The both have their peculiarities in building the country’s power status within the African sub-region. This work sought to demonstrate the interpenetration of Nigeria’s national image and her foreign policy through a rigorous look at the country’s foreign policy during Balewa and Murtala/Obasanjo Regimes. It argued that Nigeria’s role perception by succeeding military and democratic governments in bilateral and multilateral engagements have not only shaped her foreign policy but paradoxically undermined the country’s international image. This, the work hinged on a combination of factors, the chief among them being the contradictions and dissonance between foreign policy formulation and implementation.