139 Introduction. he ascension to power and inauguration in May 1999 of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo as elected President of T Nigeria marked a watershed in the nation- state's international image rating.Since independence in 1960, the Nigerian State had been enmeshed in long years of military rule leading to an apparent plummet of its international image –a phenomenon which reached its lowest point bringing Nigeria to the fringes of a Pariah State at the brinks of democratic governance in 1999.Nigerians would prefer to forget the events of the Abacha regime(described briefly herein) which inflicted gratuitous and wanton pains on them and forced many citizens to seek asylum abroad with those unable to travel forming various coalition movements in opposition to the draconic junta.Being a Nigerian citizen under the Abacha regime was burdensome as many became objects of ridicule at international forums. Citizens who travelled abroad became ready targets of thorough security searches and scrutiny at foreign airports and border terminals. The period also witnessed, inter alia, the gruesome murder of the environmental rights activist, Ken SaroWiwa and nine others of his Ogoni kinsmen by the Abacha regime andthe DIPLOMATIC SHUTTLES IN FOREIGN POLICY: WERE OBASANJO TRIPSDURING HIS TENURE OF ANY BENEFITS TO NIGERIA? By SANUBI, Franklins Avwoghokigho Reader in International Relations, Department of Political Science, Delta State University, Abraka, Nigeria sanubi@yahoo.co.uk, fasanubi@delsu.edu.ng & OKE, Chris IfeanyiAdebowale Department of Political Science, Delta State University, Abraka, Nigeria ifeanyichichi@yahoo.com, chrisoke2005@gmail.com Abstract A major foreign policy feature of the President Olusegun Obasanjo's 1999-2007 administration was its flurry of foreign trips. As a tool for promoting bilateral and multilateral bargaining in interstate relations, and against the cacophony of views on the relevance of these travels for a developing economy in transition, this paper presents a post-mortem historical discourse on the President Obasanjo's diplomatic travels and assesses the gains for Nigeria as a nation-state.It uses mainly secondary data to buttress the argument of success of Obasanjo's foreign travels which were aimed primarily at restoring Nigeria's international image hitherto battered by the military regimes that preceded the administration. It observes amongst other things that the shuttles rekindled international business engagement sin Nigeria by attracting inflows of Foreign Direct Investments (FDI), securing international debt reliefs while restoring its recognition in the comity of nations. It recommends among other things, a redirection of the nation-state's foreign policy towards addressing the critical developmental questions notably its near-zero domestic infrastructure, its drowning currency and its dire domestic/regional security situation being currently despoiled by scourges of regional terrorism and militant insurgencies. Keywords: Foreign policy, diplomacy, diplomatic shuttles, Nigeria image-laundering, foreign direct investment (FDI)