Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, recently addressed the growing competition between major powers like the US, China, and Russia for influence in Africa. In an interview with MSNBC, he emphasized Nigeria’s commitment to strategic autonomy and avoiding alliances with any one nation against another.
Minister Tuggar acknowledged the potential for Africa to become a battleground for global power struggles. He stressed Nigeria’s desire for endogenous solutions led by African nations, with support from partners like the US.
“Yes, of course, we are very wary of Africa becoming the ground for contestations, great power contestations.
“There has been a change from a bipolar world to a multipolar world, and this tends to attract contestations by great powers. Our outlook is that of strategic autonomy. We get along with everyone.
“We also, of course, have a history of non-alignment, but we are democratic. We have had seven successive elections since 1999, and we don’t want to see any private military companies or mercenaries in our – on our continent. Nigeria successfully tackled the insecurity and conflict in Sierra Leone, in Liberia, leading ECOMOG, and now we’re doing it with the Multinational Joint Task Force, along with Niger, with Cameroon, with Chad.
“And we feel that’s the way forward, as opposed to exogenous solutions. We would rather endogenous solutions that are supported with – by countries like America that have been great partners to Nigeria and many others on the African continent,” Tuggar stated.
Tuggar also used the interview to advocate for Nigeria’s inclusion on the UN Security Council as a permanent member. He cited Nigeria’s large population, projected economic growth, and democratic credentials as reasons for its candidacy.
“To build on the gains that we have made so far with regards to our foreign policy agenda, which is, just like you mentioned earlier in your program, democracy, demography, development, and diaspora, the four Ds. And, of course, Nigeria is the largest democracy on the African continent. It is the largest country in terms of population.
“Two hundred and twenty million were set to become the third largest country in the world by the year 2050, when we will have a population of 400 million, and the largest economy. So we need to democratize the very governing organs of the world. Nigeria needs to belong to the G20. There needs to be a reform of the UN Security Council. Nigeria needs to be in that Security Council as a permanent member,” he said.