Nigeria: Africa's New Gendarme?

1 Shehu Shagari, My Vision of Nigeria (London & Toronto: Frank Cass, 1981), pp. 75-76.

2 Quoted in Terry Mays, `Nigeria's Foreign Policy and its Participation in ECOMOG', in Karl Magyar & Earl Conteh-Morgan, eds, Peacekeeping in Africa: ECOMOG in Liberia (Basingstoke: Macmillan/New York: St. Martin's, 1998), p. 112.

3 See Bola Akinterinwa, Nigeria and France, 1960-1995: The Dilemma of Thirty-Five Years of Relationship (Ibadan: Vantage, 1999); Oscar Ede, `Nigeria and Francophone Africa', in Gabriel Olusanya & R.A. Akindele, eds, Nigeria's External Relations: The First Twenty-Five Years (Ibadan: University Press Limited, 1986), pp. 176-195; and Bassey Ate, `The Presence of France in West-Central Africa as a fundamental problem for Nigeria', in Bassey Ate & Bola Akinterinwa, eds, Nigeria and Its Immediate Neighbours (Lagos: Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, 1992), pp. 11-30.

4 See Emeka Nwokedi, `Nigeria and France', in Olusanya & Akindele (note 3 above), pp. 284-293; and Pius Okigbo, Africa and the Common Market (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1967).

5 For accounts of the Nigerian civil war, see Anthony Kirk-Greene, Crisis and Conflict in Nigeria, two volumes (London: Oxford University Press, 1971); Ken Saro-Wiwa, On a Darkling Plain: An Account of the Nigerian Civil War (Lagos & Surrey: Saros International Publishers, 1989); and John Stremlau, The International Politics of the Nigerian Civil War (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1977).

6 Olusegun Obasanjo, My Command (London, Ibadan & Nairobi: Heinemann, 1980), p. 152.

7 On the rivalry between CEAO and ECOWAS, see S. K. B. Asante, `ECOWAS/CEAO: Conflict and Cooperation in West Africa', in Ralph Onwuka & Amadu Sesay, eds, The Future of Regionalism in Africa (London: Macmillan, 1985), pp. 74-95; and Daniel Bach, `The Politics of West African Economic Cooperation: CEAO and ECOWAS', Journal of Modern African Studies, vol. 21, no. 4, 1983, pp. 601-621.

8 See Guy Martin, `Francophone Africa in the Context of Franco-African Relations' in John Harbeson & Donald Rothchild, eds, Africa in World Politics: Post-Cold War Challenges, 2nd edn (Boulder, CO & Oxford: Westview, 1995), pp. 163-188; and Douglas Yates, The Rentier State in Africa (Lawrenceville, NJ & Asmara: Africa World Press, 1996).

9 See Olajide Aluko, `The Expulsion of Illegal Aliens from Nigeria: A Study in Decision-Making', in Gabriel Olusanya & R. A. Akindele, eds, The Structure and Processes of Foreign Policy Making and Implementation in Nigeria, 1960-1990 (Lagos: Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, 1990), pp. 421-445.

10 James Mayall, `Oil and Nigerian Foreign Policy', African Affairs, no. 75 (300), July 1976, p. 327.

11 See Lateef Aminu, `French Economic Penetration of Nigeria: Its Security Implications', in Ate & Akinterinwa (note 3 above), pp. 208-210.

12 Quoted in West Africa, 12-18 March 1990, no. 3785, p. 403.

13 Personal interview with Ambassador Olu Adeniji, Lagos, 13 January 1997.

14 See Gérard Prunier, The Rwandan Crisis: History of a Genocide (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995), pp. 281-290.

15 I thank Daniel Bach of Boston University for this important observation.

16 See Adekeye Adebajo, `Folie de Grandeur', World Today, vol. 53, no. 6, June 1997, pp. 147-150; and Kaye Whiteman, `Confused Voices', West Africa, no. 4170, 13-19 October 1997, pp. 1643-1644.

17 Jean-François Bayart, `Endgame South of the Sahara? France's African Policy', in Chris Alden & Jean-Pascal Daloz, eds, Paris, Pretoria and the African Continent (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1996), p. 27.

18 Quoted in West Africa, no. 4170, 13-19 October 1997, p. 1664.

19 I thank Colonel Patrice Sartre, Military Adviser for the Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations in New York, for providing this information.

20 For accounts of the Liberian and Sierra Leonean civil wars, see Abiodun Alao, The Burden of Collective Goodwill: The International Involvement in the Liberian Civil War (Brookfield, VT & Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998); Klaas Van Walraven, The Pretence of Peacekeeping: ECOMOG, West Africa and Liberia (1990-1998) (The Hague: Netherlands Institute of International Relations, 1999); Robert Mortimer, `From ECOMOG to ECOMOG II: Intervention in Sierra Leone', in John W. Harbeson & Donald Rothchild, eds, Africa in World Politics: The African State System in Flux, 3rd edn (Boulder, CO & Oxford: Westview, 2000), pp. 188-207; William Reno, Warlord Politics and African States (Boulder, CO & London: Lynne Rienner, 1998); and Margaret Vogt, ed., The Liberian Crisis and ECOMOG: A Bold Attempt at Regional Peacekeeping (Lagos: Gabumo Press, 1993).

21 See the Second Report of the Secretary-General pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1270 (1999) on the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone, 11 January 2000, S/2000/13.

22 For an assessment, see Shehu Othman & Gavin Williams, `Politics, Power and Democracy in Nigeria', in Jonathan Hyslop, ed., African Democracy in the Era of Globalisation (Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 1999), pp. 15-71.

23 For details, see the ECOWAS Protocol Relating to the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peacekeeping and Security, Lomé, 10 December 1999.

24 See Report of the Secretary-General pursuant to Security Council resolution 1216 (1998) relative to the situation in Guinea-Bissau, 17 March 1999, S/1999/294.

25 See Comfort Ero, `The Future of ECOMOG in West Africa', in Jakkie Cilliers & Greg Mills, eds, From Peacekeeping to Complex Emergencies: Peace Support Missions in Africa (Johannesburg & Pretoria: South African Institute of International Affairs & Institute for Security Studies, 1999), pp. 61-65.

26 See Adekeye Adebajo, `Whither Nigeria's Foreign Policy?', Tell, 23 August 1999, pp. 48-49.

27 See François Soudan, `Notre Ami Abacha', Jeune Afrique, no. 1879, 8-14 January 1997, pp. 12-13.

28 Personal interview with Sule Lamido, Nigeria's Foreign Minister, Lomé, 8 December 1999.

29 See Rocklyn Williams, `Beyond Old Borders: Challenges to Franco-South African Security Relations in the New Millennium', African Security Review, vol. 8, no. 4, 1999, pp. 3-19.

30 Personal interviews with diplomatic and military officials on a research trip to Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone in July and August 1999.

31 Sule Lamido (interview), `I Will Surprise My Critics', This Day, 8 August 1999, p. 10.

32 See Adekeye Adebajo & Chris Landsberg, `Pax Africana in the Age of Extremes', South African Journal of International Affairs, vol. 7, no. 1, January 2000, pp. 16-19.

33 See Stephen Wright & Julius Emeka Okolo, `Nigeria: Aspirations of Regional Power', in Stephen Wright, ed., African Foreign Policies (Boulder, CO & Oxford: Westview, 1999), pp. 125-130.

34 Olusegun Obasanjo, `Nigeria, Africa and the World in the Next Millennium'. Address at the Fifty-Fourth Session of the United Nations General Assembly, 23 September 1999, p. 6.

35 On the Chad operation, see Margaret Vogt & Lateef Aminu, eds, Peacekeeping as a Security Strategy in Africa: Chad and Liberia as Case Studies, two volumes (Enugu: Fourth Dimension, 1996).