Saint Lucia is an Eastern Caribbean island nation, located in the northeast of the island of Saint Vincent, northwest of Barbados and south of Martinique. It had a population of only 179,285 people as of 2023 according to the World Bank. The capital is Castries. It is a member of the British Commonwealth even though it got its independence from Britain in 1979. English is its lingua franca but several Saint Lucians also speak French Patois or Creole. About 90% of the Lucians are Roman Catholic, due to earlier French. Originally, the indigenous people were firstly the Arawaks, who came from South America around 200-400 AD, and then the Caribs who arrived around 800 AD and displaced the Arawaks. They fought battles to resist colonisation but succumbed and sold their land to the French West India Company in 1651, thus making Saint Lucia a French territory. Although Saint Lucia had much of Frenchification, the Carib heritage still co-exists with the influences of Africa, Dutch, and English. 

The economy was first based on banana industry and currently on tourism and banking services. Tourism accounts for more than 65% of GDP. Its national currency is known as East Caribbean Dollar (XCD). 100 USD is 267.51 XCD, that is, 1 USD is the equivalent of 2.67 XCD. Apparently, the XCD is quite stronger than Nigeria’s Naira. Cost of living,  in terms of housing, domestic food products, alcohol, eating out, utilities, etc., is low when compared with major cities in Europe. The climate is tropical with rain showers throughout the year. The driest season is between January and March and the hurricane season is between June and November. 

More interestingly, Saint Lucia is the name of a woman and is the first country to have been named after a woman. This is the country to which President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (PBAT) paid an official visit. Why such a visit to a small country? Of what relevance is Saint Lucia to Africa and Nigeria? These are some of the questions raised by Akintunde Akinyemi, an Associate Fellow of the Academy of International Affairs at the ThruMyEyes on foreign policy programme held every Thursday at 7 pm by Sir (Professor) Bolaji Akinwande Akinyemi, CFR.  

Nigeria’s relationship with the Saint Lucians can be explained multilaterally and bilaterally. Multilaterally, both countries are Member States of the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations, Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), Group of 77, and also of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP). As Nigeria is yet to have a resident ambassador in Castries (Nigeria’s ambassadors have been generally accredited non-residentially either from the Nigerian Mission in Havana (Cuba) or from Nigeria’s Permanent Mission in New York), multilateralism has been a major feature and instrument in the relationship.

For example, at the level of the ACP platform, both countries share values and collaborate with the European Economic Community which later became European Community and currently European Union, following the signing of the 1992 Maastricht Treaty that came into force in 1993. Multilateral frameworks have enabled cooperation particularly in the areas of trade and development. Nigeria is also involved in the quest for a free trade framework at the level of the AfCFTA-CARICOM dialogue. It is noteworthy that both countries are strong advocates of global justice, fairer trade terms, and reparatory justice for slavery and colonialism. Without any whiff of doubt, the future of rapprochement of the two countries within the context of multilateral frameworks is quite bright, especially following the PBAT’s official visit to Saint Lucia and the growing pressure for greater South-South cooperation and solidarity.

Bilaterally, with which we are more concerned here, it can be observed that the future has the potential to be more interesting and challenging than the multilateral platforms. This is because Nigeria not only actively supports the policy of heritage tourism and efforts to reconnect the African Diaspora in the Caribbean with their African roots, but also because of Nigeria’s Strategic Autonomy Agenda that underscores the Nigerian Diaspora. In understanding the issues involved, there are three complementary levels of analysis: pan-African ancestry considerations, strengthening the Technical Aid Corps Scheme (TACS) as instrument of soft power, and Nigeria’s diplomacy of 4-Ds as foreign policy instrumental pillars which are explicated under the strategic autonomy dimensions hereinafter. 

At the level of the pan-African ancestry and in response to the enquiry of Mr Akintunde Akinyemi, an Associate Fellow of the Academy of International Affairs, Saint Lucians are mostly descendants of the enslaved Nigerians taken away to Saint Lucia. Several Saint Lucians have not only traced their ancestry to Nigeria, but have also been calling for deeper relationship with Africa, placing emphasis on citizenship programmes and heritage tourism.

Saint Lucia, in particular, has been itching for long to cooperate with Nigeria in the areas of education, investment, tourism, and climate change adaptation. Most unfortunately, both countries are yet to accredit diplomatic missions to one another. Many observers attempt to give reasons of far distance and little or no interests to justify why Nigeria does not have a High Commission in Castries. This consideration cannot but be most unfortunate bearing in mind that Nigeria is the world headquarters of the Black people in the world. Africa is the centrepiece of Nigeria’s foreign policy. In fact, Saint Lucians are mostly of Nigerian descent. This is the more reason Saint Lucia ought to have a more prominent place in the strategic calculations of Nigeria’s foreign policy.

This cannot but be so because of the already growing influence of Nigeria in Saint Lucia. And true enough, Nigeria’s cultural influence is gradually increasing with the Nollywood films and the Afro-beats music. Particularly more interesting are the literary works of Chinua Achebe and Chimamanda Adichie, as well as the joint organisation of festivals, fashion weeks and music production training programmes.

On the TACS, the need to coordinate Nigeria’s development assistance and to stop the idea of donating money to countries was made clear at the inception of the TACS in 1987. Before 1987, there was no structure in Nigeria’s development aid. Grants were given without coordination. This situation was not good enough. It prompted the then Foreign Minister, Professor Bolaji Akinwande Akinyemi, to recommend the need for a dedicated scheme to manage Nigeria’s technical assistance. Military President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida rightly approved the need to go beyond monetary aid. The approval brought the TACS into existence. When the TACS took off, effectiveness and efficiency were the hallmarks of the Scheme. Nigeria was generally lauded. Many African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries were recipients of Nigeria’s technical assistance based on their specific requests.

However, in recent times, the ideals of the TACS are no more given priority and PBAT has patriotically opted to give the Scheme a more lively existence by seeking to give it a new life. The TACS is essentially about providing Nigerian professionals in the areas of need of the recipient countries. It is this pan-African soft diplomacy, which has been the only sustainable legacy of Nigeria’s foreign policy until now and which PBAT is currently and commendably promoting.

As regards the diplomacy of 4-Ds, that is, Democracy, Development, Demography, and Diaspora, the Tinubu administration wants to be autonomous strategically by using the 4-Ds as the quadrilateral pillars. The thinking of Nigeria’s Foreign Minister, Ambassador Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, is that Nigeria is the biggest democracy in Africa. Democracies do not fight themselves. Democracies serve as catalysts of economic growth and development. Democracy in Nigeria cannot but also serve as a good linkage with other democracies in the world. Consequently, democracy should be consciously promoted. 

In the same vein, development is not only an instrument for influence in international politics, but also an objective to be actively pursued. In fact, the Foreign Minister sees demography as quite critical, especially that Nigeria’s population is not just the biggest in Africa, but most of Nigerians are also very dynamic and indefatigable. They have the capacity to innovate relentlessly. This is particularly very true of Nigerians in the Diaspora. Ambassador Tuggar strongly believes that harnessing the 4-Ds has the great potential to project Nigeria better in international relations, especially with the roles being played by the NIDCOM (Nigerians in Diaspora Commission) under its Chairman, Honourable Abike Dabiri-Erewa.

The particular case of the Diaspora is noteworthy, because it not only explains Nigeria’s quest to promote better entente with the CARICOM (Caribbean Community), but also why PBAT had to find time to visit Saint Lucia on his way to participate in the 17th BRICS Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil beginning today.  

Saint Lucia, on its own right, is geo-strategic in location. It is not only the headquarters of the OECS (Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States) but the gateway to the other Member States of the CARICOM. It was a subject and object of Franco-British rivalry during the days of colonial struggle. It is useful to recall that Anglo-French struggle for Saint Lucia changed hands fourteen times and that the first settlements in the island were all French, beginning with Soufrière in 1746, leading to 12 settlements by 1780, and to the establishment of large numbers of sugar plantations. By that time, the British operated from Barbados while the French had their own headquarters in the Martinique. When the British launched their first invasion, called the Battle of Cul de Sac, in 1778, the French ceded on a permanent basis Saint Lucia in 1815 under the Treaty of Paris. Saint Lucia was not only incorporated into the British Windward Islands administration in 1838 with headquarters in Barbados and this lasted until 1885, the capital was also shifted to Grenada.

And perhaps most interestingly, struggling colonialists were most interested in the natural beauty and the natural deep-water harbours of Saint Lucia that enabled protection of military vessels and surveillance of the enemies. This same Saint Lucia is of strategic importance to Nigeria because majority of the enslaved transatlantic Saint Lucians were of Nigerian descent. No wonder, in the eyes of PBAT, ‘Africa and the Caribbean are one people… Nigeria will support youth, trade, education, and cultural growth across the Caribbean.’ This interest in supporting the CARICOM largely explains PBAT’s 4-day official State Visit to Saint Lucia that began on Monday, June 30, 2025 and thereafter to Brazil. 

In fact, it can be rightly argued that the support is coming late bearing in mind the significant roles previously played by Saint Lucians in Nigeria’s political governance. As noted in the Presidential Press Releases of June 29, 2025, by Bayo Onanuga the Presidential spokesman, the late Sir Darnley Alexander, a Saint Lucian, served in various capacities in the judicial sector: ‘he first came to Nigeria in 1957, recruited as a legal draftsman by the Western Regional Government of Chief Obafemi Awolowo. 

He became the Acting Director of Public Prosecutions in 1958. In 1960, he was appointed Solicitor General and Permanent Secretary of the Western Regional Ministry of Justice. In 1964, he was appointed a Judge in the Lagos High Court. In 1969, the defunct South Eastern State appointed him the Chief Judge. He later became the Chief Justice of Nigeria in 1975, succeeding Sir Teslim Olawale Elias.’

This long quotation speaks volumes. Before Nigeria was to accede to national sovereignty on October 1, 1960, the colonial master, Britain, made it possible for non-indigenous Nigerians to either accept Nigerian nationality or to return to their original home countries. Many of the Non-Nigerians opted to acquire the Nigerian nationality and remained in Nigeria. It is within this context that the various positions occupied by Sir Darnley Alexander were enabled as a Lucian Nigerian. And true enough, this is enough good reason to justify PBAT’s visit to Saint Lucia and renew the ancestral ties. Additionally, the press release also reminded that another Saint Lucian, Neville Skeete, also contributed as an architect to the design of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s corporate headquarters. 

On a more serious note, visiting and promoting bilateral ties with Saint Lucia is not only consistent with the diplomacy of the Diaspora as an instrument of development, but also reflects Nigeria’s compliance with the African Union’s Sixth Region’s Agenda. As such, Africa and the Caribbean are not simply one people, Nigerians and Saint Lucians are truly one people. This is why the place of Diaspora in the diplomacy of the 4-Ds is quite apt and should be further explained as instrument of attaining a new foreign policy grand strategy. This is also one major reason why the Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi’s condemnation of PBAT’s offer of scholarships to students in Saint Lucia while many Nigerian children are out of school, is not good for objective consideration. As reportedly put by Peter Obi, the offer of such scholarships is ‘heart-breaking and a betrayal against Nigerian children.’

As quoted in The Guardian, ‘it is heart-breaking that our President, who is the leader of a country with the highest number of out-of-school children in the world, and with the students in the capital of his own nation, Abuja, presently not attending schools, would travel to Saint Lucia and offer scholarships to children there.’ This observation is most unfortunate because it negates the situational reality of Nigeria’s foreign relations with the CARICOM. Since the establishment of the TACS in 1987 the CARICOM has been beneficiaries of Nigeria’s technical assistance, grants, and scholarships. Even if it can be rightly argued that there was no problem of out-of-school by then, it is not when life is convenient that goodness must be shown. Offering scholarships is very consistent with the objective of strategic autonomy for Nigeria in the long run.

The mere fact that Nigeria upgraded the place of Africa from being the cornerstone to centrepiece of Nigeria’s foreign policy in 1976, the mere fact that most of the Africans enslaved and shipped from Africa to Saint Lucia during the slave trade were from West Africa and particularly from Nigeria, and most importantly, considering that greater emphasis has been placed on the role of Nigerians in the Diaspora as an instrument of national development, prompting the establishment of a Nigerian Diaspora Commission currently headed by Honourable Abike Dabiri-Erewa, there is no disputing the fact of reasonableness in the decision to offer scholarships to Saint Lucian Nigerians so to say. 

Without whiff of doubt, a closer rapprochement between Nigeria and Saint Lucia has now become a desideratum, bearing in mind Nigeria’s foreign policy interest in becoming one of Africa’s Permanent Members of the United Nations Security Council. Current international politics favours the membership of only two countries from Africa. The general consideration is that the two members should be South Africa and Nigeria. However, records have shown that the United States does not favour Nigeria but Egypt. The United States wants a permanent membership for the Arabs but they do not constitute a region of the world as a definiendum for eligibility. Consequently, the United States wants Egypt who can be described as African and Arab. 

Put differently, when talking about two Member States from Africa, Egypt is the first option for the United States. The implication is not far-fetched: South Africa and Nigeria should be left to compete for the position at the level of the African Union. The EU countries say they will accept any nominated countries by the African Union. The truth of the matter, however, is that they have more sympathy for South Africa. South Africa knows this and has been striving hard to outdo Nigeria who is wrongly resting only on her oars and African liberation efforts and also wrongly believing that support for Nigeria could come on a platter of gold. 

Fortunately for South Africa, she is one of the very few African countries maintaining diplomatic ties with Saint Lucia. Diplomatic ties were established by Saint Lucia with the Kingdom of Morocco in 1988. She did same with South Africa in 1996. It was the turn of Rwanda on 28 August, 2019. Nigeria has not been in the picture. In international politics, policy makers and observers in Nigeria often carelessly refuse to acknowledge that there is a subtle rivalry between Nigeria and South Africa. It is this particular rivalry that PBAT is pragmatically trying to address by upgrading Nigeria’s diplomatic entente with the CARICOM.

South Africa is ranked the 30th in the world in terms of its number of diplomatic posts.  China is leading the world with 274 posts, comprising 173 embassies, 91 consulates, 8 Permanent Missions and 2 other representations. United States is placed second with 271 (168 embassies, 83 consulates, 11 Permanent Missions and 8 other representations). Brazil is ranked the 10th with 205 posts (135 embassies, 58 consulates, 12 Permanent Missions and 2 other representations. The only African country listed among the 65 countries ranked in the Global Diplomacy Index 2024 by the Lowy Institute is South Africa which has 114 diplomatic posts, including 98 Embassies, 12 Consulates, 2 Permanent Missions, and 2 other representations. The point here is that South Africa is already far ahead Nigeria in terms of openings towards the international community.   

As observed by the Saint Lucian Prime Minister, Phillip J. Pierre, ‘although the official visit of H.E. Bola Ahmed Tinubu, KCOSL, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, concludes today, the renewed bonds established between our nations will endure… President Tinubu’s historic visit to Saint Lucia has rekindled our shared history, elevated our consciousness and deepened our connection to Nigeria and the African continent.’ The Prime Minister could not have been more correct. 

PBAT’s visit to Saint Lucia has many achievements: foundation-laying for the establishment of exchange of High Commissions in Castries and Abuja, joint commitment to South-South cooperation and citizen diplomacy, support for youth empowerment, signing of a technical manpower agreement, and most importantly, the conferment of Saint Lucia’s highest national honour of the Knight Commander of the Order of Saint Lucia (KCOSL). In spite of these, it cannot but be expected that an Ambassador-designate should be expeditiously named in light of the enthusiasm of Saint Lucia. Delayed non-accreditation of a Plenipotentiary and Extraordinary Ambassador to Saint Lucia can send wrong signals to Castries. PBAT has not been able to accredit new ambassadors since 2023. Whatever is the rationale for this, there is no disputing the fact that efforts are being made to project Nigeria on the basis of new policy attitude and behaviour. Emphasis on Western connections is on the decline. Areas that have always been neglected or taken with kid’s gloves, such as the CARICOM, are now taken up more seriously. Nigeria’s foreign policy behaviour is increasingly reflecting Africano-globalism disposition, which implies that the notion of Africa as centrepiece now extends to the Caribbean. General Olusegun Obasanjo once mooted the idea of globalism as centrepiece of Nigeria’s foreign policy but to no avail. Today, PBAT is carrying Africa on his back to build a bridge between Africa and its descendants in the Diaspora. It is commendable and should be encouraged.