The State of Nigeria: Oil Crises, Power Bases and Foreign Policy
Author(s)
Shaw, Timothy M.
Abstract
Current events as well as continuing debates have generated a “crisis” in studies of Nigerian foreign policy in particular and of African foreign policy in general. The immediate issue is whether regime changes or oil shocks affect policy more; but the underlying tension is about when “politics” or “economics” (or both) determine direction. In the Nigerian case, the transition from innovative military rule to introverted civilian government (through 1983) has led to comparative reviews of regime types in foreign affairs while the roller-coaster of oil price and demand has produced dramatic swings in estimates of national “power”. With a preoccupied presidency and an unstable resource base, can Nigeria in the 1980s still aspire to be a Newly Influential or Industrializing Country (NIC)? This article treats the controversy about Nigeria’s international position and potential in the context of changing global situations, economic, strategic, and analytic.
