“Foreign policy is not about “dogo turenshi” which is reserved for the kind of elite that is assembled in this place. It is more that. It is an external projection of the values that we have as a nation. It is also the promotion of our national interest and our worldview because other countries want to know where we stand on issues, that’s why not just input in the General Assembly of the UN or the ECOWAS or even in the African Union, but generally articulated at home. Where do we stand?
“What do we value? What are our priorities as a nation? What are the national interests that we wish to defend? Therefore, in my view, we need to continue to struggle to build a national consensus behind the articulation, design and defence of our national interest in the new millennium, which is based on the promotion of peace and security, sustainable development, as well as the development and democratization at home and abroad.
“In this regard, Nigeria must continue to establish both in principle and practice the approach that it is no longer enough to seek what your country can do for others, but what we can do together with others in the pursuit of our common interests. And it is our duty and diplomacy to persuade others that it is in their own interest to try to support us on what we propose, promote as a national interest and if you don’t agree with this, just look at what Israel has managed to do with the United States. They have made their interest the interest of the United States in the articulation and promotion. Because you are adding to your power, you are adding to your identity of prestige, when other countries adopt as their interest what you define as your interest.
“And it is very important to know and that is the skill of diplomacy. And that’s where you have to recruit the best and the brightest, you know, to not only define your interest but to get other people to define their interest in your own interests and that is one of the successes of any country’s diplomacy.
“So, as I said, the principle and practice of bodies shared responsibility to govern even those external endeavours, which are in our own interest. And that is why in this context, building African institutions like the Lake Chad Basin Commission, like the ECOWAS, the African Union, African Development Bank, African Export Import Bank, has become a distinct feature of the Buhari administration’s foreign policy and our country’s diplomacy.
“I wouldn’t use the term concentric circles because somebody unknown has been associated with that concept, but whether in theory and practice you will find that you have to begin at home and then widen your circle of interest and effectiveness around your neighbour, then you review, then your continent, then association such as a commonwealth, such as non-aligned movement G7. But the court must always be at home, the defence and pursuit of our national interests based on promotion of peace and security, economic prosperity of our people, and the values that we share in terms of democratisation and human rights,” Professor Ibrahim Gambari said.
