Abstract
Americans too often see Nigeria in strategic terms — a bulwark against Soviet expansion in Africa and as a possible regional manager, much like that of Brazil or Iran. Nigerians also assume that this was to have been the role that the United States had hoped Zaire would play in Africa but the latter’s instability and lack of influence in African diplomatic circles has precluded such a role. Consequently, in a search for a more useful ally, Nigeria has emerged as the only other choice and a major source of oil as well … [The Nigerians] concede that this somewhat coincides with Nigeria’s own interest which has as the cornerstone of its foreign policy a commitment to a free and stable Africa [1].
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Notes and References
Nigerian viewpoint summarised in Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) and Rockefeller Foundation, Nigerian-American Relations: a Report of a Nigerian-American Dialogue, 9–12 October 1978, Bellagio (Lagos: NIIA, n.d.) pp.7–8.
See Olatunde J. Ojo, ‘Nigerian-Soviet Relations: Retrospect and Prospect’, African Studies Review, 19 (3), December 1976, pp. 43–63, and
Oye Ogunbadejo, ‘Ideology and Pragmatism: the Soviet Role in Nigeria’, Orbis, 21 (4), Winter 1978, pp. 803–30.
The consolidation of federal government powers is analysed by A. Akinsanya, ‘The Machinery of Government during the Military Regime in Nigeria’, Africa Quarterly (New Delhi), 17 (2), October 1977, pp. 32–54, and
A.-D. Yahaya, ‘The Struggle for Power in Nigeria, 1966–1979’ in Oyeleye Oyediran (ed.), Nigerian Government and Politics under Military Rule (London: Macmillan, 1979) pp. 259–75.
On the effects of the oil boom see Richard Joseph, ‘Affluence and Underdevelopment: the Nigerian Experience’, Journal of Modern African Studies, 16 (2), June 1978, pp. 221–39.
The first ‘developmental’ approach underlies the articles of Jean Herskovits, ‘Dateline Nigeria: a Black Power’, Foreign Policy, 29, Winter 1977–8, pp. 167–88, and
Ibrahim Gambari, ‘Nigeria and the World: a Growing Internal Stability, Wealth and External Influence’, Journal of International Affairs, 29 (2), Fall 1975, pp. 155–69. For a critical review of the literature on Nigeria’s foreign policy by ‘dependency’ analysts see Chapter 11.
Christian Science Monitor, 3 April 1978. See also Jimmy Carter, America’s African Policy (Lagos: NIIA, 1978).
New Nigerian (Kaduna), 15 June 1979, and R. Deutsch, ‘African Oil and U.S. Foreign Policy’, Africa Report, 24 (5), September–October 1979, pp. 48–9.
See West Africa, 4 July 1977, p. 1332; or Ishaya Audu, Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, in Financial Times, 30 September 1980, Shehu Shagari in Time, 6 October 1980, pp. 18–19, and Olajide Aluko, ‘Nigeria, the United States and Southern Africa’, African Affairs, 78 (310), January 1979, pp. 91–102.
The Observer, 8 July and 5 August 1979, Business Times (Lagos), 14 August 1979, and D. Ingram, ‘Tory Policy in Africa’, Africa Report, 25 (2), March–April 1980, pp. 4–8.
Cyrus Vance in West Africa, 1 August 1977, p. 1573. See also A. Lake, ‘Africa in a Global Perspective’, Africa Report, 23 (1), January–February 1978, pp. 44–8.
N.C. Livingstone and M. Nordheim, ‘The US Congress and the Angolan Crisis’, Strategic Review, 5 (2), Spring 1977, pp. 34–43.
Text of the letter and the communiqué in Yusufu Bala Usman, For the Liberation of Nigeria (London: New Beacon Press, 1979), pp. 287–91.
Barbara Harrell-Bond, ‘Diary of a Revolution Which Might Have Been, Part I’, American Universities Field Staff Reports, 24, 1980, pp. 11–13.
Orobola Fasehun, ‘Nigeria and the Ethiopia-Somalia Conflict’ (Ife: Department of International Relations, 1980, mimeo) passim.
S. Feustel, ‘Nigeria: Leadership in Africa’, Africa Report, 22 (3), May–June 1977, p. 49.
On these changes see Washington Post, 1 June 1978, and R. Deutsch, ‘Carter’s African Policy Shift’, Africa Report, 15 (3), June 1980, pp. 15–18.
See P. Collins, ‘The Political Economy of Indigenisation: the Case of the Nigerian Enterprises Promotion Decree’, The African Review, 4 (2), 1974, pp. 491–508.
Akin Iwayemi, ‘The Military and the Economy’, in Oyediran (ed.), Nigerian Government and Politics under Military Rule, p. 57, and Sunday Tribune (Ibadan), 13 July 1980.
Quoted from J. F. E. Ohiorhenuan, ‘Nigerian Economic Policy under Military Rule’ (Ibadan, 1980, mimeo), p. 80.
See The Sun (Baltimore), 1 January 1978, New Nigerian, 5 August 1980 and The Punch, 21 July 1980; see also Okello Oculi, ‘Dependent Food Policy in Nigeria’, Review of African Political Economy, 15–16, May–December 1979, pp. 63–74
United Nations, Centre against Apartheid, Notes and Documents (77–77651), December 1977, pp. 14–15.
See J. Coussy, ‘Extraversion Economique et Inégalités de Puissance’, Revue Française de Science Politique, 28 (5), October 1978, p. 872.
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© 1983 Timothy M. Shaw and Olajide Aluko
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Bach, D.C. (1983). Nigerian-American Relations: Converging Interests and Power Relations. In: Shaw, T.M., Aluko, O. (eds) Nigerian Foreign Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-06301-7_3
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