A CRITICAL EVALUATION OF GENERAL SANI ABACHA FOREIGN POLICY (1993 – 1998)

Background of the study: Nigeria's foreign policy, like that of most other countries, has had achievements and disappointments since its independence in 1960. Every country's foreign policy identifies the country's primary national interests. Similarly, the goal of such a policy is one of the determinants of a country's image in the international system. Nigeria, like many other countries throughout the world, has been deliberate in its approach, with favorable results for the country. This is because Nigeria's actions and responses to crises affecting the country are undoubtedly dictated by its foreign policy aims. Apart from issues that directly impact Nigeria, the government also ensures that Africa is effectively addressed in its foreign policy objectives. In other words, Nigeria's pro-African policy has given it an advantage over other African countries. A country's foreign policy, according to Northedge (1968), is a "interplay between the exterior and the inside" (p. 15). This suggests that a country's foreign policy is one of the determining elements in how countries interact with one another. Nigeria's foreign policy has affected the country's actions and decisions towards challenges on the African continent. Nigeria has become a focal point for any real development in Africa as a result of this. As a result, a number of studies on Nigeria's foreign policy have been commissioned, including Inamete (2001), Osuntokun (2007), Ashaver (2014), and Gambari (2017), all of which focused on how Nigeria's foreign policy has affected the country's decision-making process.

In Nigeria, however, successive military dictatorships have utilized the Africa cornerstone mantra to entice obedient, like-minded African rulers to back their unpopular regimes. Nigeria has to pay this price in exchange for despotic African regimes' backing. As a result, between 1993 and 1999, this study analyses Nigeria's foreign policy transformation from a responsible member of the international community to a reckless actor under the military.