By Gloria Ikibah
President of the Association of Foreign Relations Professionals (AFRPN), Dr. Gani Lawal, has called on the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), to recuse self from political crisis, even as he said ECOWAS was a creation of military regimes and as such the new found euphoria with democracy has no place in its working.
Dr. Lawal, who stated this at a press conference on Wednesday in Abuja, cautioned the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Amb. Yusuf Tuggar, not to jettison the country’s age long pursuit of concentric brother keeper’s foreign policy.
Naijablitznews.com reports that the press conference is part of the AFRPN 6th Annual lecture titled: “Unconstitutional Change of Government and Attainment of AU63 Agenda and UN SDGs – The case of West Africa and the Sahel Subregion”.
The AFRPN President noted that foreign policy is an extension of internal policy dictated by the vagaries of the external environment and crafted around what a nation wants and does not want on the basis of its national interests from the global stage, and added that an impactful foreign policy cannot be conducted in an atmosphere of poor internal political and economic dynamics.
According to him, the national interest of Nigeria is to build a strong economic base, fight insurgency and terrorism and decapitate the corruption monster, noting that finding resources to actualize these interests in the international arena should remain the cornerstone of Nigeria foreign policy goals.
Lawan posited that a nation ought to weave its national interest around the weight of its Military industrial complex and natural resources to earn a favorable edge in the global intercourse.
“Where internal dynamics are not informed by sound professional intellectual and strategic thinking you may be heading towards a cesspit of trial and error response to international occurrences or what some professionals described as “kabu kabu” diplomacy’.
“The AFRPN is poised to checkmate that from happening to our foreign policy hence the robust discussion you get on our platforms.
“It is expected that a nation will weave its national interest around the weight of its Military industrial complex and natural resources to earn a favorable comparable edge in the global intercourse” he stated.
“President Mbeki last year argued on our podium that democratic governance offers the best approach to pursue populist foreign policy goals.
“However nurturing democracy is not a tea-party, it requires creation of a robust and elaborate educationally informed population that will act as vanguard of democracy.
“A largely illiterate and uninformed population cannot enhance democracy, therefore Nigeria’s insistence on zero tolerance for military coups and undemocratic change of government in Africa, requires that Nigeria must demonstrate with examples of nurturing and deepening its internal democracy and ready to assist less endowed neighbors to maintain their internal democracy.
“But are we in a position to do this? If not we should put our mouth where our money can take us. The idea of issuing threats to others on democracy is not an option for us.
“Though I am aware of the marriage between politics and economics but at some point, the idea of mixing politics with economic strategies to achieve prosperity for the populace through regional grouping should stop as canvassed by former president Mbeki in his last lecture to AFRPN.
“Political solutions must not be a clog in the wheel of economic prosperity of the people. Some regional organizations such as ECOWAS are basically designed for economic integration to achieve prosperity for the people through cr ation of a large base for economic exchanges and must be shielded from happenings in the political high ends.
“It is instructive to note that Ecowas was a creation of military regimes and as such the new found euphoria with democracy has no place in its working and therefore must be spared”, he asserted.
The qawae also promised to checkmate any form of “Kabu Kabu” diplomacy in the country.
AFRPN President expressed his optimism that the 4 D mantra of the president Tinubu foreign policy will not jettison age long pursuit of concentric brother keeper’s foreign policy.
The Association of Foreign Relations Professionals of Nigeria (AFRPN) is a society of foreign relations experts consisting of serving and retired career diplomats and ambassadors, scholars, and researchers on foreign policy and international relations.