CITIZEN DIPLOMACY AND HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA: A CONTEMPORARY DISCOURSE
CITIZEN DIPLOMACY AND HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA: A CONTEMPORARY DISCOURSE

Summary/Abstract: Citizen diplomacy as a key component of diplomacy is fundamental in international relations. Through it, individual citizens help realize their countries’ national interests through unofficial interactions. For Nigeria however, the worry is whether citizen diplomacy can effectively complement official diplomatic activities in the face of the low human-capital development of her citizens. United Nations Development Pro-gramme in 2019 placed Nigeria’s human-development-index value for 2018 at 0.534, positioning the country at 158 out of the 189 countries and territories surveyed. It also classified 51.4 percent of Nigerian population as being multi-dimensionally poor with an additional 16.8 percent categorized as being vulnerable to multidimensional pov-erty. In view of this challenge therefore, this paper examined the implication of the low human-capital development on foreign relations of Nigeria. Data was collated from secondary sources while qualitative descriptive technique was used for analysis. The paper found that Nigeria’s current human capital development trajectory is incapable of stimulating citizen diplomacy into complementing the coun-try’s official diplomatic relations with other states. It also found that this situation accounts for the failure by Nigeria to actualize most of her foreign policy objectives. The paper therefore recommended improved investment in wellbeing of Nigerians for better outing in foreign relations.

• Details
• Contents