Nigerian Foreign Policy and the Liberian Crisis: Interrogating the Nigeria’s Interventionist Approch

Nations of the world are propelled by certain interests in their foreign policy approach. Those interests, often called national interests, are packaged as what is known as foreign policy objectives. Foreign policy objectives vary from nation to nation. The study looked at the foreign policy objectives of Nigeria as it relates to its intervention in Liberian crisis. Foreign policy should be directed towards attaining and achieving national interests of a nation. Nigeria foreign policy, it seems, is very loose and too ambitious. Scholars and practitioners of foreign policy have called it “father Christmas†foreign policy approach. The foreign policy objectives of Nigeria have been pursued to the detriment of national interests rather than enhancing Nigerian national interests. The paper adopted content analysis as a method of data analysis and relied on Rationality, Power and Ideology (RPI) Model as a valid theoretical framework to analyse the factors that propelled Nigerian intervention in Liberian crisis. The paper concluded by putting forth a number of suggestions to ensure and enhance a vibrant and proactive Nigerian foreign policy.