Nigerian citizen diplomacy and national security threats: a critical assessment

Abstract

Nigeria occupied a place of relevance in regional and global networks of relations and exchanges. In the effort to bolster national prestige of African most populous country, citizen-centric diplomacy was initiated and popularized by Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua’s administration, 2007-2011. After more than a decade of its conduct, it becomes pertinent to re-examine its functionality and trends in credence to current crisis of national security bedeviling Nigeria nation-state. In this vein, the methodology is qualitative design which explored the imperatives of documentary sources and non-participant observational method of data collection to textual analyze scholarly perspectives, empirical narratives and events as related to key concepts of the discourse. Similarly, Richard Snyder Decision-Making theory in foreign policy study was applied to argue that Nigerian Citizen Diplomacy was conceptualized and initiated in cognizance of ‘objective realities’ in response to domestic, regional and global exigencies. Furthermore, the discourse revealed enormous national security challenges across 96 local government areas and 29 states of the federation as relevant institutions of Nigerian foreign service grapple in myriad of inadequacies to efficiently respond to the expectations of 17 million Nigerians in Diaspora which undoubtedly militates against lofty ideals and targets of Nigeria Citizen Diplomacy. From these findings, the discourse recommend for multi-sectoral responses, institutional alertness, advocacy among other measures to establish that Nigeria’s image and pride in international arena begins with the commitment towards safety and comfort of her citizens.