Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, which also has the continent’s largest economy, appears to be looking toward the ascendent East and Global South as it seeks to strengthen its global strategic alliances and to increase its international clout.
As a part of a new foreign policy initiative meant to assert its influence on key global organizations, Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Yusuf Tuggar says that his country intends to join the BRICS group—which adds six new members at the beginning of next year— within the next two years. He added that he believes Nigeria not only meets the criteria for membership for BRICS+ but for the G-20 as well, Bloomberg reported.
“Nigeria must belong to groups such as BRICS, G20, and all other blocs, because if there is a certain criterion, namely that the largest countries in terms of population and economic weight should be a part of it, then why is Nigeria not one of them?” the foreign minister asked, continuing:
Nigeria will join all open groups as long as the intentions are good, benevolent, and clearly defined since it has reached the age to decide for itself who its partners are and where they should be.
The foreign minister’s statements come just days after Nigeria’s president Bola Tinubu attended the G20 Compact with Africa (CwA) in Berlin, Germany, where he, along with leaders from more than a dozen African countries, sought to make a compelling case for their countries as prime investment destinations.
The African continent’s leading economic power has previously voiced its intention to join the BRICS bloc. However, for whatever reason, it did not submit an official application for membership before the group’s summit in South Africa last August, at the end of which, six new countries—Argentina, Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates—were invited to join.
Prior to the summit in Pretoria, some forty countries expressed interest in joining the intergovernmental organization. Fourteen countries, including North Africa’s second-largest economy Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Honduras, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Pakistan, Palestine, Senegal, Thailand, Venezuela, and Vietnam, have, at this point, formally applied to join the group.
Although the six are set to formally become members on January 1st, 2024, earlier this week, Diana Mondino, the senior economic advisor to Argentina’s president-elect Javier Milei, who has been critical of Brazil and China, told the news agency Reuters that the country has no intention of joining BRICS.
Milei, during the run-up to his election, said he would not have economic ties with communist countries.
BRICS, whose explicitly stated goal is to challenge the G7’s global economic and institutional hegemony, has plans to dethrone U.S. dollar dominance by proposing the introduction of a new currency to settle payments for international trade. Presently, the founding member states of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), make up 42% of the world’s population and some 25% of the global GDP.
Despite that, BRICS member states only have 15% of the voting rights in the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
