Years of Reconstruction: Selected Foreign Policy Speeches of Olusegun Obasanjo

The President, General Olusegun Obasanjo (Rtd.) has pursued an activist foreign policy since his inauguration in 1999. He has been able to reintegrate Nigeria into the global community within a very short time.

He has also led the drive to re-engineer the African continent for peaceful socio-economic and political development. President Obasanjo has indeed contributed immensely to discourses on critical issues of International relations, world politics and international economic relations. Significantly, he launched a campaign for debt relief, which has been globally acclaimed and has yielded the cancellation of over $18 billion of Nigeria’s debt to the Paris Club and the exit of Nigeria from its indebtedness to the London Club of Creditors.

As a result, the President’s opinions are being consistently sought by policy makers and scholars around the world. His views, statements and actions at major international platforms have influenced and indeed helped in providing focus for Nigerian and African positions on major continental and global issues.

These views have been expressed and delivered at diverse bilateral, multilateral, continental and global platforms including: the United Nations fora, the G8 Summits, World Economic Forum, World Trade Organizations Rounds, the Commonwealth Meetings, the AU, NEPAD and ECOWAS Summits among others.

Accordingly, the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) decided to introduce this series to be known as the Presidential Speeches on Foreign Policy Series, a collection of the speeches of  the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This first volume covers a selection of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s speeches made from 1999 to early 2007, including in particular: the two inaugural speeches made in May 1999 and May 2003.