Sports as Instrument for Promoting Nigeria's Foreign Policy

Abstract

Since the end of the Cold War in the late 1980s, it has become the acceptable norm to employ instruments of soft power to promote the foreign policies of States in the international system. Sports, given their wide global appeal, are considered veritable soft power instruments and thus, States often use participation in international sporting competitions to project their desired images to other members of the international system. It is no gainsaying that Nigeria suffers image deficit in the international system. Successive Nigerian governments have tried to use various instruments ranging from making Nigeria a frontline participant in peacekeeping operations all over the world to the use of the media to present the country in better lights to other members of the international system with little success. Against this backdrop, this study presented sports as a veritable instrument for promoting Nigeria's foreign policy and by extension, Nigeria's image in the international system. With data drawn from the review of relevant literature on sports and foreign policy in Nigeria, the study concluded that Nigerian governments have not effectively utilized the immense potentialities of sports to promote the country's foreign policy. To correct this problem, the study, inter alia, recommended the urgent review of the 2009 National Sports Policy, the professionalization of sports administration and the creation and strengthening of the synergy between the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.