Abstract
Since formal independence in 1960, Nigeria’s political leaders have struggled to forge a nation out of the conglomeration of peoples inhabiting the country.1 This is a Herculean task, given the more than 250 distinctive ethnic and linguistic groups brought together within a territory defined by the British colonisers. While building this new nation, Nigerian leaders have endeavoured to play important diplomatic roles in global, regional and West African subregional politics, and have sought a leadership position in Africa. Such foreign policy roles have clearly been influenced by the country’s economic resources and its place at the (semi-) periphery of the international economic system.
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Notes
Eghosa Osagie, ‘A Survey of the Nigerian Economy Since Independence’, in Gabriel O. Olusanya, Bassey E. Ate and Adebayo O. Olukoshi (eds), Economic Development and Foreign Policy in Nigeria ( Lagos: Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, 1988 ): p. 21.
Siyambola Tomori, ‘Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing’, in F. A. Olaloku (ed.), Structure of the Nigerian Economy (London: Macmillan, 1979): 15, table 21.
Peter O. Olayiwola, Petroleum and Structural Change in a Developing Country: The Case of Nigeria ( New York: Praeger, 1987 ).
World Bank World Development Report 1989 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989): 164, table 1.
Sayre P. Schatz, Nigerian Capitalism (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1977). Also, Gavin Williams (ed.), Nigeria: Economy and Society (London: Rex Collings, 1976); and Richard A. Joseph, ‘Class, State and Prebendal Politics in Nigeria’, Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics 21, 3 (1983): 21–38.
Larry Diamond, Class, Ethnicity and Democracy in Nigeria: The Failure of the First Republic ( Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1988 ).
Claude S. Phillips, Jr, The Development of Nigerian Foreign Policy (Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1964 ): 80–7.
Shehu Othman, ‘Classes, Crises and Coup: The Demise of Shagari’s Regime’, African Affairs, 83, 333 (October 1984): 441–63. Also Toyin Falola and Julius Ihonvbere, The Rise and Fall of Nigeria’s Second Republic, 1979–84 ( London: Zed, 1985 ).
See William D. Graf, The Nigerian State: Political Economy, State Class and Political System in the Post-Colonial Era (London: James Currey and Portsmouth: Heinemann, 1988); Julius O. Ihonvbere and Timothy M. Shaw, Towards a Political Economy of Nigeria: Petroleum and Politics at the (Semi-) Periphery (Aldershot: Avebury, 1988); Timothy M. Shaw, Towards a Political Economy for Africa: The Dialectics of Dependence (New York: St Martin’s Press, 1985 ).
Stephen Wright, ‘The Government of Nigeria’, in Michael Curtis (ed.), Introduction to Comparative Government, 3rd edn ( New York: Harper Collins, 1993 ): 629–34.
Daniel C. Bach, ‘Europe-Afrique: des acteurs en quête de scénarios’, (Europe-Africa: Actors in Search of Scenarios), Etudes Internationales, 22, 2 (June 1991): 323–38.
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© 1994 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
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Okolo, J.E., Wright, S. (1994). Nigeria. In: Shaw, T.M., Okolo, J.E. (eds) The Political Economy of Foreign Policy in ECOWAS. International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-23277-2_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-23277-2_8
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