Nigeria must adopt diplomatic posture that safeguards sovereignty – Amb. Tuggar

2026-03-14 - 00:56

By Nkiruka Nnorom In an increasingly multipolar and volatile international system, Nigeria must adopt a diplomatic posture that protects its sovereignty, while pushing national interests and widening partnerships. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Amb. Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, stated this at the launch of “Strategic Autonomy As A Foreign Policy Grand Strategy for Nigeria: The Doctrine of 4-Ds As Definienda” a book authored by Prof. Bola Akinterinwa, President\Director General, Bolytag Centre for International Diplomacy and Strategic Studies, BOCIDASS, in Lagos. Tuggar said that strategic autonomy as Nigeria’s foreign policy doctrine, had emerged as a guiding approach that allowed the nation to maintain its independence, and navigate global power dynamics without being constrained by rigid geopolitical alignments. He stated that President Bola Tinubu’s 4-Ds foreign policy, anchored on Democracy, Development, Demography, and Diaspora, provide a coherence that advances Nigeria’s pursuit of strategic autonomy while expanding its global influence. According to him, Nigeria’s foreign policy required serious intellectual engagement, arguing that the book launch filled a gap that’s been missing. “It is both encouraging and gratifying to see Nigeria’s foreign policy strategies and realities subjected to forceful scrutiny and serious intellectual engagement, because this is what has been missing for quite some time. Nigeria’s progress will depend not on rhetoric but on intellectual rigor, serious scholarship, and informed policy debates. “The public presentation of the book not only deepens our understanding of this strategic concept, but also enriches the growing body of knowledge on Nigeria’s foreign policy and its evolving place in the international system,” he said. Reviewing the book, Prof. Eghosa Osaghae, Director General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, NIIA, said that strategic autonomy evolved from three basic elements, including domestic economic strength, industrial tech capacity and internal autonomy. He urged production of the second volume of the book to compare Nigeria with Japan, India, South Korea and China, and argued that there’s the need to treat autonomy as both indigenous and exogenous. Arguing that remittances alone were not enough, he said that diaspora must retain cultural rootedness to contribute to strategic autonomy. Speaking, Prof Akinterinwa maintained that Nigeria had no real foreign policy objective, saying that 1999 Constitution (Section 19)’s call to “respect international law and treaty obligations” was a platitude, not a goal. He argued that the doctrine of the 4-Ds and strategic autonomy should be elevated from framework to Nigeria’s actual foreign policy objective. He defined strategic autonomy essentially as self-reliance, to be pursued from household to national level, with a second volume of the book planned on Nigeria’s path to that goal. Akinterinwa credited Foreign Minister Tuggar for embracing the idea of the book and funding a collaborative research push without bureaucratic fuss.