Nigeria Should Rejig Foreign Policy, Awkward Appointing 83-year-old Ambassador to US, Prof. Oyebode Says

Nigeria needs to reorganize her foreign policy, rejig her representation to the United States of America and present more vibrant and intellectually endowed foreign policy decision-makers should Democratic candidate Joe Biden win the US presidential election, according to Professor Akin Oyebode.

Oyebode, a former Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Lagos was a guest on ARISE News, the Nigerian government should prepare to put things right should Biden win the US presidential election.

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“We need to rejig our representation to the United States. It was a little bit awkward to send an 83-year-old man to the US as the ambassador of Nigeria to the United States.

“I think his tenure is over now, so we need more vibrant, more intellectually endowed and agile foreign policy decision-makers,” said Prof Oyebode.

Oyebode said Biden emerging as US president will give some signal of a better state of affairs between the US and African countries.

“We don’t need to be too optimistic because the more things change, the more they remain the same. We have to put on our thinking cap as the largest concentration of black people in the world in order to rejig our foreign policy.

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“Right now Nigeria does not appear to have given any thought to the idea of reorganizing her foreign policy. With Biden in the White House, I think we have to go back to the drawing board in terms of who represents us in the US and in terms of the strategic decisions we have to take and in terms of consolidating stature within the international system,” he sa

By Abel Ejikeme

 

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