The Question of African Leadership: Nigeria in Focus

Abstract

This article is devoted to the study of the issue of leadership on the African continent, which is the object of the study, because, since 1963 Nigeria is a member of the Organization of African Unity (now the African Union), the Economic Community of West African States since 1975, and the United Nations since October 7, 1960. The subject of the study is Nigeria’s foreign policy on the African continent, as since independence Nigeria has pursued a number of foreign policy goals: the eradication of colonialism and other external forms of exploitation, The oppression and marginalization of Africans. The main conclusion of the study is that Nigeria’s role in the formation of AU and ECOWAS, was in conformity with its national interest and foreign policy pursuit, which was designed to promote regional integration and cooperation within West Africa and Africa in general. The role of Nigeria is fundamental for African organizations and their leadership prospects. Historically, Nigeria's Afrocentric foreign policy and its national interest have made it possible for Nigeria to pursue African oriented policy. The authors applied a number of methods to carry out this research: historical, legal and analytical. The historical method allows us to give the chronology of Nigeria’s leadership role in Africa from 1960 to 2020. The legal method permitted the analysis of the legal instruments, particularly from different constitutions, treaties since Nigeria’s independence till date. The analytical method consists of the analysis of the evolution of different transformations that occurred in the African continent from 1960 to 2020.