CHAPTER ONE
- BACKGROUND
Foreign Policy is a set of carefully articulated goals and objectives which nation-states seek to realize and actualize in the conduct of their relationships with other states. It is also a series of responses which a nation-state offers to the demands which other states put before it. Foreign policy could also be defined as a set of continuously redefined attitudes and dispositions which a state brings to the external environment in which it has to operate in the conduct of foreign policy. For the purpose of clarity, it must be stated that anything „foreign‟ is something that is external or coming in from a country that is not one‟s own, while a „policy on the other hand, is a plan or a course of action agreed or chosen by an organization or government to pursue with the hope of attaining certain expected results/gains.
Right from independence, Nigeria‟s foreign policy has been determined by several factors. One of the most significant factors is that it is the most populous black nation on earth and this has compelled her to shoulder the leadership of the black world assuming responsibilities far beyond her borders. Some might say beyond her means. Even though Nigeria moved in a measured pace, there was no doubt that the political leadership of the first republic realized that the country had a legitimate claim to leadership and also that black people in Africa and the diasporas looked up to Nigeria. Although, in practice, the Republic of Ghana under Dr. Kwame Nkrumah (1909-1972) painted Nigeria as an inactive giant with feet of clay, yet Nigeria was not found wanting when it came to defending the interests of Africans still under colonial domination or in confronting France when they were determined to continue with the deadly injurious policy of testing nuclear bombs in the Sah2ara against the wishes of the African people.
The foreign policy of any country at any given time is intricately related to its domestic politics. It, therefore, follows that a country‟s national power has direct relevance to its foreign policy. The country is big and relatively populous having about a quarter of Africa‟s population. This population although backward because of the level of illiteracy, constitutes a big market for foreign investment. The size of the country and its population has given it a strategic advantage that cannot be easily overrun