Nigeria to leave nearly 100 international treaties

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Europe

Nigeria’s government says it is leaving close to 100 international treaties to save millions of dollars spent on servicing its membership to the organizations.

Currently the West African giant is signatory to 310 international organizations but its government says some of the treaties have become costly and irrelevant.

The country currently spends up to 70 million US dollars in annual subscription fees to retain membership to hundreds of international organizations.

No list of the organizations to be exited has been provided but finance minister Kemi Adeosun says that all 310 organizations are being evaluated for relevance.

Nigeria became members to most of the organizations during the oil boom.

But oil revenue has dramatically shrunk, with 60 percent being wiped out due to low global prices.

The government has established a committee to identify the 90 international treaties it can exit.

“The government will save costs, again the government will become pragmatic and they would be able to pragmatically honor their obligations, within the confines of available resources, the cons I don’t see so much of it because even the United States of America and some other nations, they select which conventions to be signatory to," said Ebenezer Oyetakin, an international relations expert.

This is not the first time the government has asked for review of its foreign engagements with the objective of cutting costs.

In 2015, President Buhari ordered a relevance review of Nigeria’s diplomatic missions around the world. Nigeria has over 100 diplomatic missions around the world, but the president asked for the less significant ones to be shut down.

These moves has caused concern about the risk of Nigeria ceding its influence in the international sphere.

“Nigeria being the front of the African influence, Nigeria cannot be dispensed by the international communities. Our place cannot be dispensed. So whatever we have selected to exit from will be according to the priority that we placed on our diplomatic behavior with the external world,” said Oyetakin.

The actual amount Nigeria can save from leaving 90 international treaties is unknown until the final report is completed by the review committee.