ABSTRACT:

 This paper examines the background to Nigeria’s current foreign policy direction as enshrined in its foreign policy principles in the 1979 & 1999 constitutions, and Nigeria’s role in world affairs, consequent to these principles since independence.  It raises and analyses some of the challenges confronting Nigeria’s foreign policy projection, and examines the possible options that are available to guide Nigeria’s foreign policy direction in future, in an attempt to overcome these challenges, bearing in mind Nigeria’s goal and aspirations to continue to play a global foreign policy leadership role in world affairs as a continental power.