Abstract

This article is a historical analysis of the foreign policy of the two immediate regimes of Nigeria’s Fourth Republic (Obasanjo [1999–2007] and Yar’Adua/Jonathan [2007–2011]), which claimed that the formulation of the nation’s foreign policy was aimed at benefiting the citizens and was hence democratic or citizen-oriented. The existing literature on the subject was analyzed using historical research and critical analysis. Also, a content analysis of selected newspapers tested government decision-making on one of the case studies. It critically reflected on the foreign policy statements and actions of the regimes that were considered to be dividends of democracy. This was particularly so when premised in comparative terms with the past military dispensations that circumvented the people’s will in policy formulations. The article concludes that even though both regimes sought to wear the garb of democracy, all the proclamations and actions of democratizing the nation’s foreign policy architecture to make it citizen-oriented remained mere rhetoric.