Basic Currents of Nigerian Foreign Policy

By Mae C. King

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 088258071X
• ISBN13: 9780882580715
• Release Date: May 1996
• Publisher: Howard Univ Pr
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.8" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

A diplomatic history of one of the most important nations in Africa

Assuming that the problems of serious ethnic differences inside the country and the tendency to have a kleptocracy rather than a government could be overcome, then Nigeria could emerge as the most powerful nation in Africa. With over 130 million people and vast oil reserves, it is the most populous and potentially wealthiest nation in Africa. Since it achieved independence from Britain in 1960, it has maintained a consistent pro-Western foreign policy, although it did develop significant ties with the Soviet Union during the Biafran civil war in 1967-1970. While no Nigerian government could totally ignore the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, most of the significant issues facing the various Nigerian governments related to the African continent. Nigeria was subdued, yet active in many of the major events in Africa. It was very interesting to read the actions of the Nigerian government in response to the superpower involvement in the wars in Angola and Mozambique. I was a close follower of the news at that time and remember how the war in Angola was characterized. Then U. S. president Gerald Ford made it sound as if the events in that country would determine the fate of the United States. When the U. S. Congress cut off the funds for the proxy war the U. S. was waging in Angola, nothing negative happened at all. As an avid follower of current events and a student of history, I spend a great deal of time examining the actions of the countries of European extraction. It is a rare occasion when I read anything about the foreign policy of any nation not in that category. In this case, I was glad that I read something outside that box. I learned a great deal about the role Nigeria has played and how it views the world. Africa below the Mediterranean-Arab North and the industrialized southern tip continues to be a very unstable area. Most of the nations of that region have had some form of significant civil war over the last two decades and Nigeria is the regional power with the reservoir of good will that could help stop the wars and keep the peace when they are over.