Highlight three merits and three demerits of Africa as the centre piece of Nigeria Foreign Policy
Explanation
(a) Merits (i) Respect for the sovereign equality and territorial integrity of other African States
(ii) Increased Nigerian participation in the liberation movements in all colonial African States.
(iii) Increases rapport and friendly relation-ship with other African States.
(iv) Nigeria's active participation in the development of sports and education among African States
(v) Formation of multilateral economic relationship e.g. Chad Basin Commission, Niger Basin Com-mission, ECOWAS, etc
(vi) Nigerian's active participation in peace keeping operations in Africa e.g. Congo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Chad.
(vii) Assisting other African nations through corps aid scheme whereby highly qualified personnel are deployed to some African countries.
(viii) It gives Nigeria foreign policy a sense of direction and policy consistency.
Demerits: (i) It imposes heavy financial burden on Nigeria
(ii) It leads to loss of lives through peace keeping operation and liberation activities e.g. Congo, Liberia, Sudan, etc.
(iii) It leads to brain drain from Nigeria to other African States.
(iv) It leads to the influx of citizens of other African countries to Nigeria for greener pasture e.g. Ghana in the 1970s and 80s and now Niger and Mali.
(v) Hostilities: Some African countries which benefited from the policy later became hostile and unfriendly to Nigeria and Nigerians e.g. Angola, Liberia, South Africa, Chad, etc.