The President of the African School of Governance (ASG), Kingsley Moghalu, has decried the global standing of Nigeria.
Professor Moghalu said Nigeria’s acceptance into the BRICS bloc as a partner nation while South Africa, Ethiopia and Egypt were accepted as full members showed everything was wrong with the country’s foreign relations.
Henzodaily reported that the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Maitama Yusuf Tuggar, announced last Saturday, that Nigeria was accepted as BRICS partner member.
In his reaction on Thursday, the former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) also blamed President Bola Tinubu’s indecision on the appointment of ambassadors two years into his administration.
His words: “That South Africa, Egypt and Ethiopia are full members of the BRICS countries and Nigeria is not (now simply a ‘partner’ country) speaks of our country’s declined standing in the world. It doesn’t really matter how anyone wants to spin this – we want to sit on the fence and watch. The unexamined life is not worth living, as Socrates famously said.
“The fundamental problem with Nigeria’s foreign relations is that our country’s internal dynamics have been progressively weakened – politics, economy, security, social cohesion and nationhood.
“Foreign policy and power projection, to be effective, must rest on solid domestic foundations. It’s disappointing, for example, that Nigeria government has not appointed and announced envoys to various countries nearly 2 years after President Bola Tinubuwas sworn in.”