By Gabriel Ameh
The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Sola Enikanolaiye, has said Nigeria’s domestic governance and grassroots development are critical to the country’s foreign policy and international standing.
Enikanolaiye made the remarks on Tuesday in Abuja while delivering a goodwill message at the 2026 maiden National Conference of the 774 Local Government Chairmen and Chairmen of Traditional Rulers’ Councils held at the State House Banquet Hall.
The conference, convened by the Federal Ministry of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs, was themed, “Cascading President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda to the Grassroots.”
According to the minister, developments within Nigeria have direct implications for how the country is perceived and engaged internationally.
“For us in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we believe that every aspect of our government policy at home has implications for foreign policy and Nigeria’s international relations,” he said.
Enikanolaiye added that grassroots mobilisation and development were therefore important to Nigeria’s diplomatic efforts abroad.
He called for inclusive governance that works from the grassroots upward, stressing that traditional rulers remain an important part of Nigeria’s governance structure.
The minister also commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for approving the national conference and for recognising the roles of local governments and traditional rulers in the ongoing constitutional amendment process.
Speaking within the framework of the administration’s 4-D foreign policy doctrine of Democracy, Development, Demography and Diaspora, Enikanolaiye said the success of the Renewed Hope Agenda would ultimately depend on its impact at the grassroots.
On demography, he described Nigeria’s young population across the 774 local government areas as a major national asset, calling for greater empowerment of local governments to convert the country’s population strength into economic and national power.
On development, he said Nigeria’s ambition of building a $1 trillion economy would require productive and stable local governments.
He cited the country’s agricultural potential, mineral resources and major infrastructure projects, including the Lagos-Calabar and Sokoto-Badagry highways, as areas where grassroots stability could support investment and economic growth.
On democracy, the minister said strengthening local governments and traditional institutions would demonstrate the practice of inclusive, bottom-up governance.
He also linked effective grassroots governance to Nigeria’s diaspora engagement, arguing that Nigerians abroad would be better positioned to invest and promote the country when communities at home are secure and economically productive.
Enikanolaiye said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would support these objectives through investment matchmaking involving Nigeria’s 110 diplomatic missions abroad, partnerships with Nigeria’s international partners and the use of traditional rulers’ community-level intelligence to support national security.
Also speaking at the conference, the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mr Olumuyiwa Enitan Abel, represented by Dr Vitalis Obi, described local governments as the closest level of government to the people and central to effective service delivery.
He also highlighted the role of traditional rulers in peacebuilding and reaffirmed the commitment of the civil service to accountability and measurable results.
Earlier, the Permanent Secretary, Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs, Dr Onwusoro Maduka Ihemelandu, said the government faced challenges in obtaining timely and verifiable data on interventions at the local government level.
He disclosed that an E-Tracking Framework had been developed to monitor the location, value, timeline and verification status of government projects across local government areas.
The conference brought together local government chairmen and traditional rulers as stakeholders in efforts to strengthen grassroots governance and translate federal government policies into measurable development outcomes.
