An Assessment of Nigeria’s African Policy under President Goodluck Jonathan

Abstract

Since independence, Nigeria has made Africa claim the first attention in her external
relations. Till today, successive governments in Nigeria have remained committed to
the policy. This paper examines the African Centre-Piece of the Nigerian State under
President Goodluck Jonathan’s Administration. The study focuses on how Jonathan's
administration had pursued the African Centre-Piece Policy of the Nigerian state. Data
for this work were gathered from primary and secondary sources, while the theoretical
framework that guided the work is power realism. The major findings of the work are:
Jonathan visited several African countries striving for consensus and unity among each
other but numerous claims and challenges, notably the Boko Haram issue that his
government faced, had lowered his accomplishment on the foreign scene; unhealthy
economic condition of the state incapacitated his efforts at promoting Nigeria’s African
Policy; The state’s poor economic condition under President Jonathan had an adverse
effect on his pursuit of Nigeria's African policy. The paper, therefore, recommends that:
Nigerian state should pay more attention to numerous domestic issues in order to rebuild
its image on the international scene; the obvious lack of interest in international issues
displayed by Jonathan's Administration needs to be corrected so that Nigeria’s interest
in the world and in Africa in particular will bring up the desired gain. The paper
concludes that the Nigerian state has a lot of hidden gains to make from the international
system, and that can only be realisable if Nigeria is economically vibrant in order to
perform its expected role on the continent effectively and also peacefully at home