By Joy Chezzy
The Director – General of Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution IPCR, Dr. Joseph Ochogwu, has said that the recently unveiled “4D Foreign Policy” of the Federal Government will provide a new concept, which is anchored on Democracy, Development, Demography and Diaspora.
Ochogwu stated this in Abuja during Awareness and Sensitization Session on the President Bola Tinubu”s 4D Foreign Policy Doctrine for the Members of Staff of IPCR aimed at broadening their knowledge on the 4D Foreign Policy Thrust and to understand how the 4D Strategy connects with the Institute’s mandate of peace promotion and conflict resolution for efficiency and high productivity.
According to Dr. Ochogwu, the 4D Foreign Policy Doctrines are interlinked and interconnected and therefore need formidable approaches and strategies to ensure their swift implementation across all spectrums of the Nigerian society including Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
He stressed that the 4D Foreign Policy Doctrine is a remarkable initiative and no doubt, the Institute’s mandate of peace promotion and conflict resolution needed to key into the 4D Foreign Policy Thrust particularly as one of the agencies under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In his remarks, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, reaffirmed that the Tinubu’s 4-Ds Foreign Policy Doctrine aims at driving Nigeria’s overall development by ensuring that its strategic national interests are effectively represented across the globe.
Ambassador Tugar emphasized the need to overhaul the nation’s economy to make it more development-focused by leveraging on the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA) to facilitate the exchange of goods and services while fast-tracking trade and investments through economic cooperation, fair trade, global health initiatives, stable and transparent global governance, building capacity for entrenching sustainable socio-economic development.
While delivering a lecture on the 4D Foreign Policy Doctrine, the Director, National Peace Academy, IPCR. Dr. Bosede Awodola, said that the articulated and dynamic foreign policy which is captured in the four Ds – democracy, development, demography and, of course, diaspora would help to improve national security, peace, stability as well as fostering socio-economic cooperation and development among nations in Africa and the world at large.
Dr. Awodola noted that Nigeria is set to witness changes in foreign policy in line with global best practices.
