Socialscientia I Regular I Volume 7 Number 1 I March 2022 [ISSN 2636-5979] Page | 36 Socialscientia Journal of the Social Sciences and Humanities Email: socialscientiajournal@gmail.com Online access: https://journals.aphriapub.com/index.php/SS/ Nigeria’s Foreign Policy, 1960-2015: An Appraisal Sunny Mene PIATE and Eyo Okon EMINUE Department of Political Science, Akwa Ibom State Univeristy, Obio Akpa Campus, Uyo NIGERIA Abstract The study appraised thematically Nigeria’s foreign policy engagements in the past five and half decades. The justification for adopting this approach is that instead of reviewing how each Nigerian government undertook the conduct of Nigeria’s foreign policy, the performance of all the government since independence till 2015 would be collectively set in row against the common issues and shared views so that it would be possible to judge the practical realities against the presumptions. For this purpose, the study is concern with high point of Nigeria’s foreign policy from independence till 2015 and how it has translated to economic security and prosperity of the Nigerian state. The central proposition of the study is that for Nigeria’s foreign policy to be perceived as legitimate, its implementation must be seen by Nigerians to advance the domestic national development. The theoretical explication of the discourse is political realism. The utility of the theory to the study is that states in international relations are always possessed by the national interest which nations attain only by improving upon the elements of their national power relative to other states. That is it emphasize the interconnection between the domestic economy of any country and its foreign policy. Findings from the study revealed, that Nigeria allowed the system goals to take precedence over actors goals that would have reverberate in greater economic opportunity and prosperity for the people. The study recommended, among other things, that Nigeria’s foreign policy should be more inward-focused, aimed at adding value to the nation’s development. Keywords: Afrocentricism, Citizen Diplomacy, Debt relief, Economic Diplomacy, Foreign policy, National development Peace-keeping operations. Introduction In understanding the concept of Nigeria’s foreign policy, there is the need to define the term foreign policy. The term foreign policy is nebulous in the sense that scholars of international relations have not been able to formulate a universally acceptable definition of the concept given the changing nature of power politics in the international system. But the consensus among scholars is that foreign policy is that conscious behaviour of a nation state towards the external environment. That is the set of domestic responses to external stimuli. The stimuli emanate from the structure and dynamics of the international system, while the responses is shaped by the elements in the domestic environment, including significantly, the perceptive prisms of the policy-makers. In view of this, the study look at foreign policy as that instrumentality through which states seek to influence at the international arena in order to attain those objectives that are in consonance with their