Name Olajide Aluko | ||
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Books Essays on Nigerian foreign policy, Options for Nigerian foreign policy in the 1980s | ||
Olajide Aluko was a Nigerian scholar who mostly favored Hans Morgenthau's view of realistic foreign policy in his studies of Nigeria and Africa's foreign policy. He was also a professor of International Relations at Obafemi Awolowo University and dean of the Faculty of Administration in the university.
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Views and works
In some of his early writings during the oil boom era of the 1970s, he leaned towards the viewpoint of a strong and powerful Nigerian nation, where the potential benefits of the country's natural resources such as oil and agro-commodities could be utilized to generate internal economic strength. The corollary to this would be the nation maximizing its strength in regional and international politics and devising its policies based on its internal economic, political, and social interests. However, with the fall in oil price, the illusion of a powerful Nigeria or stable foreign policy was shattered by the early 1980s. Professor Aluko later often argued against Nigeria's march towards grandeur in foreign policy. He believed it would transfer national resources and energy towards regionalization when Nigeria was still mired in poverty and had little economic and political stability to earn respect among other nations.