CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
A country plays a leading role when it possesses certain features. A country’s leadership position is determined by its military might; level of economic development; and political stability (Goldstein 2009:56). Although these elements are highly dynamic, their dynamism affects the national power and position in international politics. This is as a result of the world system which is unregulated, thus, the nature pattern and speed of changes in these elements can determine the chances of survival, stability and eternity of a country.
It is in respect to the nature, pattern and speed of changes in these elements that we discover that every region or sub region in the international system has peculiar political balance as it relates to members of the region or sub region. Nigeria has for many years participated in matters that concern Africa, in the formative years of Africa as an independent continent, Nigeria has played some major roles in the development of the region particularly in the context of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). She was among the founding members of these Organisations using her power resources: Nigeria championed the total decolonisation of Africa and the abolition of apartheid regime in southern Africa. Nigeria has also been involved in entrenching peace and security on the continent of Africa, from the United Nations Operation in Congo to her leadership in ECOWAS Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) in Liberia and Sierra-Leone and more recently the Darfur Crisis, Nigeria has contributed troops and police to peace-keeping in conflict areas of the African Continent.
However, the rise of South Africa in the Southern African region and its contribution to the African continent has an implication for Nigeria’s aspiration to be the sole leader of the African continent. South Africa has been instrumental in fashioning a continental vision in the notion of the African renaissance and subsequently the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD). It has been in the forefront of initiatives to develop the continent’s institutional capacity, especially around African Union. South Africa is one of the leading members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). It has on occasion, particularly in the case of Lesotho, had the political will to intervene aggressively to address the hotspots that could destabilise the region and through both its public and business sectors, it has been at the forefront of investment in the economic development of the continent. South Africa’s post 1994 foreign policy has been displaying hegemonic behaviour patterns. (Habib, 2003:5-6)
1.1STATEMENT OF RESEARCH PROBLEM
The intention of this research is to find out how the emergence of democratic South Africa has challenged Nigeria’s leadership role in Africa. This will help in answering questions related to Nigeria’s leadership role in the African Continent some of which are: What leadership role has Nigeria played in the African continent? To what extent has democratic South Africa’s emergence in Africa altered Nigeria’s leadership position? What are the challenges facing Nigeria as a result of the emerging leadership role of South Africa, particularly in the period 1994-2010.
For many years Nigeria’s contributions to Africa has made her to be regarded as the ‘‘Giant of Africa’’ (Akinyemi, Agbi and Otubanjo, 1989:1-9). However, with the end of the apartheid regime in South Africa, this notion of Nigeria being the ‘Giant of Africa’ is gradually declining both in terms of economic power and political influence under the shadow of the impressive progress made by South Africa, which was one of the numerous countries she had struggled to liberate. The main thrust of this research is to examine whether the emergence of South Africa has altered Nigeria’s leadership role in the African Continent.
1.2 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The main objectives of this research are:
- To discuss Nigeria’s aspiration to leadership role in Africa
- To examine the extent to which the emergence of democratic South Africa has affected Nigeria's leadership aspiration in Africa
- To examine how Nigeria is facing up to the challenges of its leadership aspiration in Africa
1.3 ASSUMPTIONS
- Nigeria’s leadership aspiration in Africa has been constrained more by internal factors of weakness than external factors.
- The emergence of democratic South Africa makes Nigeria's leadership aspiration in Africa more challenging.
1.4METHODOLOGY
This research made use of existing works and adopted a thematic format for the literature review which clearly brought out the relationship between the subject matter and the literature under review.
1.4.1 Method of Description of Areas of Study
Theresearcher described the areas of study using Tabulation method where; population, location, currency, membership in world organisations, capital and ruling party were identified.
1.4.2 Method of Data Collection
The Method of data collection was based on an examinationof the existing documents and internet sources (secondary sources of data) to discuss Nigeria’s leadership aspiration in Africa and the challenge of Democratic South Africa from 1994-2010. Some of the journals and magazines were gotten from the South African High Commission. However, it took several months before the release of some of the data used in this research as they were not convinced at first with the reasons for the enquiry. The data collected were classified into certain themes which enabled the researcher to get answers to the question of how the emergence of Democratic South Africa has altered Nigeria’s leadership role in Africa.Again, in trying to find out what factors are responsible for Nigeria’s set back, an interview both structured and oralwas administered. The face to face interview is highly flexible and allows the researcher greater control over the interview situation, it is merited for its high response rate and collection of supplementary information, however, the cost involved in travelling and time required to conduct the interview is relatively high coupled with the unavailability of some target as a result of the busy nature of their work place a structured interview was also administered, questions were written and sent to this individuals, out of the twenty (20) sent only thirteen (13) were returned . Using these, the researcher tried to identify factors that constrain Nigeria’s leadership aspiration in Africa by looking at the internal setting of Nigeria’s leadership.
1.4.3Method of analysing Data
Documentary sources was used in this research. Comparative approach was also adopted which enabled the researcher to utilise certain criteria for comparing the respective roles of Nigeria and South Africa in order to arrive at whether or not Nigeria’s leadership status has been altered by South Africa. The researcher used comparative method to compare both Nigeria and South Africa’s economy in a tabular form in order to examine the gap between both economies. As for military capacity, both countries were also identified in a tabular form so as to bring out the differences. Again, in trying to analyse data collected, the researcher tried to identify factors that constrain Nigeria’s leadership aspiration in Africa by looking at the internal setting of Nigeria’s leadership itself. This has helped to clearly identify the challenges posed by South Africa to Nigeria’s leadership role in Africa. In analysing the data, the researcher literally summarized the information generated in the research work from both the primary and secondary sources in tables and charts such that explanations were subsequently given (interpretation of data) so as to arrive at a conclusion.
1.5SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Many works have been written on Nigeria’s foreign policy, Post Apartheid South Africa, Nigeria’s leadership role in Africa, Nigeria and post Apartheid South Africa, however, this research ‘Nigeria’s Aspiration to leadership role in Africa and the challenge of Democratic South Africa (1994-2010) fills the gap of the existing works, it is also an eye opener to scholars and foreign policy experts especially those asking similar questions as the researcher did to understand the extent to which a country's leadership position can be altered by another, and the factors responsible for such thereby able to find solutions to avoid such instances and it is therefore, our contribution to knowledge.
1.6SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
The scope of this research is from 1994-2010. That is from the post apartheid era in South Africa till the year 2010.1994 was the period when South Africa emerged out of Apartheid regime and began to participate on the African continent.The researcher faced a number of limitations while conducting this research, the cost of travelling several times to collect data from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at the beginning the interview became impossible, but, later with the help of Malam Aliyu an Official at the Ministry, the researcher was able to administer Questionnaires and conduct interviews with several officials in the Ministry. However, that of South African High Commission proved abortive, though the researcher was able to get some document and materials that were used in the analysis of this work. Again out of the twenty (20) structured interviews were distributed only thirteen (13) were returned.
1.7 ORGANISATION OF CHAPTERS
This work has been organised into five chapters. The first chapter contains the general background introduction, statement of research problem, objectives of the study, assumptions, methodology; looking at how data was collected and described the areas of study, method of data analysis and interpretation , significance of research, Scope and limitation of the study, and organisation of work. The second chapter contains a conceptual clarification on leadership and foreign policy, reviews existing literature onNigerian politics and economy together with South African politics and economy, theoretical framework and summary of literature. The third chapter focuses its attention onNigeria’s foreign policy and leadership role in Africa, principles of Nigeria’s foreign policy and South Africa’s foreign policy principles/objectives before and after apartheid, Chapter four examines factors that constrain Nigeria’s leadership aspiration in Africa. South Africa’s leadership role in Africa and South Africa’s resource power base.The fifth chapter contains the summary, restatement of assumptions, findings and conclusion.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
This chapter focuses on the conceptual clarification of the concept leadership and foreign policy. Why foreign policy one may ask, a country’s foreign relations shows the extent of its role in the external environment. Therefore, in the light of the above explanation, this chapter reviews Nigeria’s leadership role in Africa by looking at Nigeria's Politics and economy and also reviews literature on South Africa's Politics and economy.
2.1CONCEPT OF FOREIGNPOLICY AND LEADERSHIP
For the purpose of this research, we relate leadership to foreign policy where determinants of foreign policy equate leadership capabilities.Before delving into the issue of leadership, it is necessary to make certain what a "leader" is. The definition of a ‘leader’ is as diverse as the myriad of books and articles written on the construct. This is because each writer has defined leadership from a different perspective. No matter the angle from which the definition of leadership is viewed, a leader is one who exerts unusual influence and considerable power.
According to McFarland, a leader "is one who makes things happen that would not happen otherwise. If the leader causes changes that he intended, he has exercised power, but if the leader causes changes that he did not intend or want, he has exercised influence, but not power" (McFarland, 1969, pp.167-178; Kofele-Kale, 1976, p.81). Sidney Hook shares a similar view as McFarland. In his work, The Hero in History, Hook depicted a heroic leader as one who makes things happen that ordinarily would not have happened. "The hero in history," he opined "is the individual to whom we can justifiably attribute preponderant influence in determining an issue or event whose consequences would have been profoundly different if he had not acted as he did."The hero is "an event-making individual who re-deter-mines the course of history" (Hook, 1943, p.229).
Obviously, students of leadership would share the views of Hook and McFarland, that the prerequisites of leadership are influence and power. Accordingly, a person who is endowed with these qualities in the context of a group, community or nation has the personality of a leader (Kofele-Kale, 1976, p.8). Henry Kissinger (US Secretary of State in Nixon Administration) pointed out in one of his famous speeches that a leader has the power to invoke the ‘alchemy of great vision.’ This, in other words, means that a leader should possess the power or influence of transforming something common into something precious.
Leaders have duties too. John Gardner has pointed out that the task of leaders is to help societies "understand the problems that all must face, to aid in the setting of goals and priorities, to work with others in finding paths to those goals chosen, maintaining public morale, and motivation and nurturing a workable level of public unity" (Gardner, 1978, pp.132-135) Leaders must activate existing institutions in pursuit of the society’s goals or, when necessary, help redesign institutions to achieve that result. Leaders must also help people know how they can be at their best "…with malice toward none, with charity for all…" In a free society leaders perform these functions within a framework of constraints. This includes an uncorrupted electoral process, the rule of law, institutional checks and balances and a free press (Gardner, 1978, pp.132-135).
Obviously, the checks on power must be in working condition, or the laws of the land would be circumvented. In this essay a "leader" refers to persons who occupy important positions in the formal polity such as Presidents, Prime Ministers, Ministers, Governors, Legislators, Party Officials, Local Government Chairmen, Council Members and of course, the local Chiefs.There are many leadership types and each has peculiar attributes. In this article we will discuss the two types of political leadership found in contemporary African societies, namely:Instrumental and Societal leadership. We shall discuss their attributes and how they affect changes in a society. The "Instrumental" leader uses power and influence primarily in the pursuit of private (personal, close family, cohorts) goals. Community objectives are secondary to an instrumental leader. The main concern of the instrumental leader is how he can use his office to achieve personal objectives. He may not be lacking in social/community commitments, but in practice more considerations are given to self over the interests of the society which he governs(Eulau,1963,p.96).The "Societal" leader is a public servant first and only secondarily a private person. While the instrumental leader uses his position to promote private and selfish goals, the societal leader subordinates private narrow goals for broader community objectives. For him power and influence are important only if they can be used to solve human problems. While the societal leader is likely to resign when he is convinced he cannot influence changes to the benefit of the public, the instrumental leader would hold on to power as long as his private objectives are achieved. He does not care whether the community derives any benefit from his rule, or not (Kofele-Koale, 1976, p.82).
Foreign policy springs from a multiplicity of domestic and external sources thus, bringing about the course of actions that nations follow. As Holsti (1983:116) defined it, foreign policy is the conscious behaviour of a state towards her external environment.This behaviour can be translated to how a country portrays her image in the international system; it involves a number of actions that has to do with her economic, political and military strength. This behaviour may vary and depending on the nature of these variables, it will lead us to what Brecher (1969:88-93) calls the ‘Operational environment’. According to him, the operational environment comprises of two general types of variables; external and internal. The external variable refers to conditions and relationships which exist beyond the territorial boundaries of states. The internal segment of the environment however, consist of five variables; military capability, economic capability, political structure, the specific demands on foreign policy made by interest groups and general demands advocated by its competing elites.
This is however not unrelated to leadership capabilities. For a country to claim leadership, it must possess these characteristics.
Brecher (1969) argues that, it is with the above factors that one may understand how powerful nations emerge in the international system. Several scholars share similar ideas on these variables (geographic size, economic, military and political strength) which determine foreign policy actions of states. In spite of the unity of purpose among them, there are different conceptual perspectives. For instance, Lentner (1974) and Rosenau dealt with determinants and foreign policy process as the ‘unit of analysis’. Joseph Frankel and Richard Snyder focused on the foreign policy decision maker as he perceives the other factors.