The cyclical pattern of Nigeria's external relations has followed that of its political constitution and petroleum production. Aspirations to great-power status in the 1970s have yielded to austerity and modesty in the 1980s. Yet core concerns about development, integration, and liberation continue despite a series of changes in governmental structure and oil profitability. Throughout, there have been lively debates about preferred policy directions and alternative analytic explanations, symptomatic of the openness of Nigeria's political culture. If its political economy can become more self-reliant and self-sustaining, then its foreign policy can yet be influential. But leadership in Africa requires the redefinition of established linkages with other, mainly Western, economic partners. If Nigeria can use the present period of economic difficulty to reduce its oil dependence, then its ambitions in and for Africa may yet be realized in the coming decade.
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References
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2.
2. Sanford J. Ungar, Africa: The People and Politics of an Emerging Continent (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1985), p. 155.
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5. See Timothy M. Shaw and Olajide Aluko, eds., Nigerian Foreign Policy: Alternative Perceptions and Projections (London: Macmillan, 1983), esp. pp. 1-34 and 164-190.
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Ekwe-Ekwe , “Nigerian Plight.”
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cf. Tunde Adeniranet al., “Papers on International Relations,” in Proceedings of National Conference on Nigeria since Independence, vol. 1, Political Development, ed. J. A. Atanda and A. Y. Aliyu (Zaria: Gaskiya, 1985), pp. 188-303.
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idem , “Mohammed/Obasanjo Foreign Policy,” in Nigerian Government and Politics under Military Rule, 1966-79, ed. Oyeleye Oyediran (London: Macmillan, 1979), pp. 150-168.
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idem , “Nigerian-American Relations Reexamined,” in Survey of Nigerian Affairs, 1976-77, ed. Oyeleye Oyediran (Lagos: Macmillan for Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, 1981), pp. 105-114.
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reprinted in How Foreign Policy Decisions Are Made: A Comparative Analysis, ed. Baghat Korany (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1986), pp. 61-85.
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idem, “Akinyemi Interviewed: Wanted—Union of Regional Powers,” ibid., pp. 8-11.
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21.
See also Adebayo Olukoshi and Tajudeen Abdulraheem, “Nigeria: Crisis Management under the Buhari Administration,”Review of African Political Economy, 34:95, 96-101 (Dec. 1985).
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Femi Aribisala, “The Management of Austerity in Contemporary Nigeria,” ibid., pp. 147-156.
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26. For an informed analysis of national and international capital in Nigeria, see Bjorn Beckman, “Neo-colonialism, Capitalism and the State in Nigeria,” in Contradictions of Accumulation in Africa: Studies in Economy and State, ed. Henry Bernstein and Bonnie K. Campbell (Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 1985), pp. 71-145.
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idem , “Nigerian Foreign Policy under the Second Republic” (Paper delivered at the Canadian Association of African Studies Conference, Montreal, May 1985).
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Larry Diamond , “Nigeria Update,”Foreign Affairs, 64(2):326-336 (Winter 1985-86).
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“Nigeria: Striking a Delicate Balance,”Time, 17 Feb. 1986, pp. 44-45.
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Beckman , “Neo-colonialism, Capitalism and the State,” pp. 92-110.
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“Tête-à-Tête: Dr. Ibrahim A. Gambari,”Spectrum, 1(3-4):11-23 (Mar.-June 1984).
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See also Adebayo Adedeji, “Some Reflections on Nigeria's Economic Performance since Independence and Thoughts on Future Prospects” (Pamphlet, Economic Commission for Africa, Sept. 1985).
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35. Sanford Ungar points to this central contradiction in his Africa, p. 150: “Nigeria's political and economic evolution has focused new attention on its role within Africa and in the Third World generally. The main trend in Nigerian foreign policy in recent years has been to forge close political, economic, and even philosophical ties with the United States, all the while reasserting Nigeria's adherence to the principles of non-alignment and African unity.”
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36. See Shaw, “Nigerian Coups and Foreign Policy,” p. 19.
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37. “Editorial: Nigeria under Gen. Babangida,”Globe and Mail, 10 Oct. 1985.
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38. Coleman, “Foreign Policy of Nigeria,” p. 379.
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39. On resistance to radical or theoretical analyses of Nigerian foreign policy as well as on current financial and organizational constraints—“the future prospects for the study of Nigerian foreign policy are not bright”—see Aluko, “Study of Nigerian Foreign Policy,” p. 13.
