THE EFFECT OF FOREIGN POLICY TO NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT: AN APPRAISAL OF GOODLUCK JONATHAN'S ADMINISTRATION.

Abstract

As recent studies shows, Nigerian's foreign policy has been in a constant state of flux as a
result of internal and external dynamics inherent in the government. Although, the formation
of Nigeria foreign policy has gone through 14 different administrations in the past 57 years,
out of which 35 years was under military regimes. Consequently, there has been a plethora of
conceptual, ideological and psychological postulation of policies in Nigeria's foreign policy
machinery, most of which were born out of a crave and selfish hunger for an identity that
would leave a lasting impression about the various administration or regime in question. The
objective of this research paper is to find out reasons for the failures in Nigeria's foreign
policies over the years. the research also provide answers as to why there is continued
insistence on Afro-centric foreign policy by past administration in Nigeria, and it critically
assess President Jonathan's foreign policy and its impact on national development. The
framework of analysis adopted by this research paper is Personality model of foreign policy.
The theory assumes that the success or failure of foreign policy is not usually a result of
weakness of the nation, but more as a consequences of the far-or-short sightedness of the man
or leader behind the foreign policy. Thus, Folarin (2013) opined that, a leader's personality is a
decisive element in the making of foreign policy and that it matters very much who is there at
a given moment. The research conclude that Nigeria's foreign policy is afro-centric in nature,
very broad in its goals and it is being determined by socio-political factors that are both
internal and external to Nigerian environment. It is imperative that Nigerian government
must address the underlying causes and provides realistic ideas and solutions that will tackle
the inherent socio-political contradictions in Nigeria as way of enhancing the image of the
country within the international system.