AN associate professor of law and Director of Abuja School of Social and Political Thought, Dr Sam Amadi, has cautioned that Nigeria’s participation in international summits like the G20 may yield little benefit without first addressing fundamental domestic economic and political challenges.

Following the G20 Summit in South Africa, Amadi argued that while international frameworks such as the G20 critical mineral framework and calls for fair trade are well-intentioned, they cannot compensate for weak domestic institutions and policy incoherence.

“The problem with Africa is that after these talks, the rules are set, but the strategic leverage you need to break through is not there. Fortune favours the bold and the organised. If you’re not organised at all, these frameworks may be good, but they won’t help you,” he explained.

He noted that despite Nigeria’s representation at the summit and calls for an equitable trade balance between the global South and North, Nigeria continues to recycle the same demands it has made at international forums for decades. “For over a decade now or two, the world has been obsessed with fair trade,” Amadi said, adding that Nigeria’s push for value addition in critical minerals exploitation requires more than summit declarations.

He drew comparisons with Asian economies, particularly China, which strategically engaged and even “gamed” the international system to achieve developmental goals. “If you look at what Asia did and how it emerged as a developmental state, they were able to strategically engage the system,” he observed.

He expressed concern that many African governments are “struggling with legitimacy” and lack what scholars call “infrastructural power”, the capacity to implement policies effectively and protect them from special interests.

On continental integration efforts, including the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), he suggested that sub-regional approaches might prove more effective than continent-wide initiatives. “In West Africa, there seems to be some economic and cultural contiguity in the sub-region,” he said, noting that Nigeria’s size and cultural proximity to neighbouring states could facilitate deeper integration.

He lamented that African leaders have become “too carried away by commitment to international frameworks” rather than focusing on domestic constitutional and legal reforms. “At the end of the day, those frameworks may be good, but if you’re not organised at home, you push yourself into an international view that doesn’t work,” he stated.

He warned that without addressing fundamental issues of political stability, regulatory convergence, and institutional capacity, Africa risks repeating the same conversations about fair trade, inclusive growth, and climate financing for decades to come without any meaningful changes.

“Africa has had a major period of fragility and West Africa is becoming worse,” he noted, calling for “more structured and home-built solutions” to the continent’s developmental challenges.