The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila, has said that Nigeria’s foreign policy in a fast-changing world should seek to engage other nations in finding solutions to new challenges and threats so that collectively, they can address them. He specifically cited climate change, easy flow of capital/funding of terrorism, and the rapid growth of technology as some of the new challenges altering the way the world functioned in the past.

Gbajabiamila, who was speaking in Abuja on Monday at the opening of a three-day Conference on the Review of Nigeria’s Foreign Policy, noted that the country should define the terms of its foreign policy by engaging the rest of the world to address the different manifestations of the challenges. The conference was organised by the House Committees on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora in conjunction with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“To do this, we must establish the values that underpin and motivate our foreign policy as this is necessary to determine everything else, including how we protect our country from the downside of globalisation while ensuring our people benefit from the opportunities that abound”, the Speaker told the session. For instance, Gbajabiamila said Nigeria today faced threats of insecurity and huge unemployment, which it must find solutions to internally and tailor its foreign policy to address both.