The International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace was a day identified by the UN for the "promotion of a more peaceful mechanism by nations in terms of resolving disputes among them", according to Prof. Felix Asogwa, Professor of International Relations at Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUST), lawyer, Director of the Institute for Peace, Conflict and Development Studies at ESUST.
"That makes the international day for Multilateralism, essentially for the coordination of multipolar states to employ the instrument of dialogue, to employ the instrument of negotiation as a way for promoting great understanding and as a way of promoting a multi full way of resolving disputes or conflicts," Prof. Asogwa explains.
In contrast, Western countries have been influencing "the direction of both political and economic events". France, for example, doesn't allow its former colonies "to have their own political and economic arrangement". Prof. Asogwa elaborates that this, in turn, does not give these countries the "leverage to fully appreciate the need for intra-African cooperation".
"It has been one of the most subversive means of not ensuring effective multilateralism on the African continent because it has continued to create an atmosphere of dependency syndrome between these former colonial territories and their colonial masters, rather than encouraging internal African cooperation, to come together to effectively solve common problems affecting them," the professor explains.
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