Impact of State Weakness on Nigerian Foreign Policy Reputation: a Critical Analysis

Abstract

Nigeria has been portrayed in bad light due to its unimpressive image and reputation as a corrupt and mismanaged economy often blamed on bad governance and leadership. The paper basically examines the impact and consequences of state weakness on the Nigerian foreign policy reputation. Findings from the paper reveals that Nigeria since inception as a federation has been a fragile and weak nation, Nigerian foreign policy reputation has been greatly affected by some internal factors that have made the country not to secure a remarkable influence and respect in sub-regional, regional and global diplomatic relationship despite its wealth and commitment in assisting other countries, the weakness of the Nigerian state arises primarily from the incapacity of the state to deliver essential and basic needs to its citizens and the Nigerian state is a victim of high level corruption and bad governance, political instability, ethnic and religious conflicts among others. These challenges have clogged up the route to sustainable development, tarnished Nigeria’s image and caused the diminishment of Nigeria’s prominence both at home and abroad. The paper therefore recommends that, the Nigerian government should vigorously pursue goals of democracy, good governance and respect for human rights at home to ensure that its leadership role is credible abroad, Nigeria should urgently mount image and reputation management campaigns in the media and project the achievements and humanitarian efforts of the country, the anti-corruption agencies should be pro-active, sincere and expedite action in fighting corruption. The paper adopts qualitative method of data analysis, drawing from secondary sources.