Parliamentary diplomacy as a tool of implementation of Nigeria’s foreign policy has been explored in this paper. Traditionally, the executive organ played the key role in the process of implementing the country’s foreign policy. However, taking into consideration the complexity of modern international relations and the necessity to increase the level of democratic control, parliament has become increasingly involved in international politics. This study explores to what extent the parliamentary diplomacy contributes to foreign policy implementation and its limitations. In terms of methodology, the study takes a quantitative approach by means of a structured questionnaire administered to 40 respondents knowledgeable in political and international issues. It was found that there is a positive correlation between the two variables indicating that parliamentary diplomacy helps to implement the foreign policy of the country, although it is less efficient than the executive organ. The results also show that diplomatic actions of parliament are more effective in terms of improving visibility and cooperation than policy-making. The limitations of such involvement include the dominance of the executive organ, lack of funding and poor coordination. To sum up, parliamentary diplomacy serves as a supportive tool of Nigeria’s foreign policy making.

Keywords: Parliamentary Diplomacy, Foreign Policy, Nigeria, National Assembly, Mixed Methods.