At the inception of the Fourth Republic in 1999, Nigeria was already at the drawing board in search of the nature of policies and projects that can correct the flaws in the foundation of its political economy and create the enabling environment for actualisation of economic revival. This is because the policies of ex-military dictators have led to the collapse of the Naira and completely rubbished the Nigerian economy. Several antidotes were listed among which was the need for a new foreign policy approach. This led to the adoption of reciprocity and economic diplomacy to replace her previous foreign policy based on the principle of Africa as centrepiece. This article evaluates the trend in operation of the new principle since 2000 and its impact on Nigeria’s search for a way out of her economic crisis. Overall, the findings identify the domestic scene in the context of leadership integrity as the key huddle to the actualisation of transparent result-oriented economic diplomacy that can impact positively on economic revival. The study recommends that Nigeria’s vision of success in the operation of the new principle must start from evolving a new leadership concept and orientation.
Keywords:Economic, diplomacy, development, foreign policy, reciprocity.