The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Sola Enikanolaiye, stated this in Abuja 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.”
Enikanolaiye, who delivered a goodwill message at the conference, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was interested in developments at the local level because of their implications for Nigeria’s international relations.
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“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.
“Which is why we are interested in everything that goes on domestically because foreign policy is also a projection of domestic policy. And in this context, grassroots mobilisation and development is critical to what we do abroad,” he said.
The minister said inclusive governance must be bottom-up rather than top-down, describing traditional rulers as a critical component of Nigeria’s governance architecture.
He commended President Bola Tinubu for approving the conference and for anchoring the roles of local governments and traditional rulers in the ongoing constitutional amendment process.
Enikanolaiye said the success of the Renewed Hope Agenda would ultimately be determined at the grassroots, linking local government development to the administration’s four-D foreign policy doctrine of demography, development, democracy and diaspora.
On demography, he described Nigeria’s youth population across the 774 local government areas as a major global asset, saying empowering local governments would help translate the country’s population into economic strength.
He said the administration’s ambition of building a $1 trillion economy could not be achieved without productive local governments, citing agriculture, mineral resources and major infrastructure projects as areas with the potential to attract foreign direct investment.
On democracy, Enikanolaiye said empowering local governments and traditional rulers would demonstrate Nigeria’s commitment to bottom-up governance.
He added that when communities were secure and economically productive, members of the Nigerian diaspora would be more encouraged to invest in the country and promote its image abroad.
The minister said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would drive the foreign policy component of grassroots development through investment matchmaking via Nigeria’s 110 diplomatic missions, partnerships with friends of Nigeria, and the use of traditional rulers’ community intelligence to support national security.
Also speaking, the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mr Olumuyiwa Enitan Abel, represented by Dr Vitalis Obi, said local governments were closest to the people and central to effective service delivery.
He also described traditional rulers as important partners 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 had faced challenges obtaining timely and verifiable data on interventions at the local government level.
He said the ministry had therefore developed an E-Tracking Framework to monitor projects based on their locations, value, timelines and verification status.