Nigeria's membership in the commonwealth of Nations (1995-2007)
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Date
2019
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
International relations,Obafemi Awolowo University
Abstract
The study examined the impacts of democracy on Nigeria’s membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and investigated the strategies used by the Nigerian government to consolidate her position in the Commonwealth of Nations. It also evaluated the benefits of Commonwealth developmental programmes to Nigeria. These were with a view to providing information on the role of multilateral institutions in the development of member states.
Primary and secondary data were utilized for the study. Primary data was gathered through unstructured in-depth interview with 20 purposively selected respondents drawn from the British High Commission, Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Ministry of Education; Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA); and the Department of International Relations at the Obafemi Awolowo University. Secondary data were sourced from books, journals, articles, newspapers, conference materials and the internet. Data obtained was analyzed descriptively.
The results revealed that democracy impacted positively on Nigeria’s membership in the Commonwealth of Nations starting from Nigeria’s readmission into the organization and further extended to other benefits such as business opportunities for economic development, women empowerment programmes, youth exchange programmes for social development, deployment of Commonwealth electoral observers group to monitor and promote democratic tenets. Also, result showed that apart from adherence to the principles of the organization, the Nigerian government also adopted a Summit Diplomacy to consolidate her position within the Commonwealth. These involved re-establishing diplomatic contacts, establishing bilateral and multilateral relationships with member states and also ensuring an active participation in all of the organisations and its affiliated organs’ activities. Finally, result revealed that Commonwealth made significant developmental assistance to Nigeria in social and economic development, educational assistance in form of scholarships and access to open education an example is the National Open University of Nigeria, technological knowledge as well as facilities and trainings for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) towards institutional capacity building. It also partnered with other agencies such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for strengthening the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The study concluded that the positive impact of democracy as well as the diplomatic strategies adopted by Nigeria strengthened Nigeria-Commonwealth relations during the period under study.
Description
xiii, 120p
Keywords
Commonwealth Nations, Diplomatic strategy, Democracy, Nigeria's membership
Citation
Adeleke,A W (2019).Nigeria's membership in the commonwealth of Nations (1995-2007).Obafemi Awolowo University