THE CHARACTER OF NIGERIAN FOREIGN AND DEFENCE POLICIES FROM 1960-1999: CONTINUITY OR DISCONTINUITY IN POLICY AND LEADERSHIP APPROACHES

This paper delivers a general background study of Nigeria?s foreign and defence policies from 1960-1999. The paper argues that, the focus of Nigeria?s foreign and defence policies from 1960 to 1999 was dictated and conditioned by the prevalent internal and external threats to national security and the urge to be Africa?s security guarantor. Promoting democratic governance was not a major feature of policy since, immediately after independence, Nigeria was strongly focused on supporting the decolonisation of the African states through the instrumentality of the OAU. While most African countries were still under colonial rule, Nigeria?s strategic interests were primarily to support peace, decolonisation and economic development in Africa. The paper also notes that, over four decades of its external relations before the return to civilian rule in May 1999, the most visible employment of Nigeria?s armed forces in pursuit of the country?s foreign policy objectives was in support of various UN peacekeeping missions within the African continent and around the world. In addition to this, it is also argued that a central goal of Nigerian foreign and defence policies from 1966 to 1999, was to fulfil its ?manifest destiny? as a regional leader in sub-Saharan Africa, but not to promoting the democratisation of the African states. However, this paper makes use of a descriptive and historical approaches to analyse the salient characteristics of Nigerian foreign and defence policies before the return to the civilian government in 1999.