Abstract

Citizens’ centred diplomacy is one of the means of achieving and protecting the interest of citizens at the international level, it is the peaceful and skillful method of negotiation by which the government of a nation safeguards the interests and welfare of her citizens in their external relations within the system. Nigerian citizen’s centred diplomacy is Nigeria’s international behaviour and action towards the protection of citizen’s interests and wellbeing anywhere around the world. Nigeria and South Africa are two important African countries and they have related in very many epochal ways over the years. The former had interacted with the latter in the regions of decolonization, economic diplomacy, bilateral trade relations, and international organizations, among others, to better the lots of their citizenry. However, it is until recently that these regional co-operations tend to be truncated especially with the problems of Xenophobic attacks in South Africa and the way her citizens are being treated as regards their socio-economic welfare. As a result of this, it was realized the need to put citizens at the center of the foreign policy in order to put in place a policy initiatives that ensure socio-economic welfares and better the lots of Nigerians in diasporas within the confines of Nigeria-South Africa relations. The purpose of the study is to identify the main thrusts of citizens centred diplomacy of the Nigerian government towards protecting Nigerians in South Africa and to evaluate how the socio-economic welfare of Nigerian diasporans in South Africa was catered for at the wake of Xenophobic attacks using Citizens' Centered Diplomacy. The traditional historical method was adopted in writing the paper, these consist of the use of primary and secondary materials gotten from the archives, journals, textbooks, official documents and oral interviews of the key informants . The findings of the study show that enunciation of Citizens’ Centered Diplomacy by Nigerian government led to adoption of foreign policy tools like Reciprocal Principles, Shuttle Political Diplomacy, Diaspora Protection, and Democratization of foreign policy. The study reveals that these tools were used to protect citizens’ socio-economic welfares and personal security and safeguard them against arbitrary treatments in South Africa most especially during the xenophobic era. The study therefore concludes that, through Citizens’ centred Diplomacy, actions and policy initiatives were put in place towards socio-economic welfare and protection of Nigerians in South Africa.

Keywords: Citizens, Diplomacy, Xenophobia, Nigeria, South Africa.