China is considered as a significant development partner in Nigeria; yet relations between the two countries have been marked by episodes of oscillations. This paper engages three interconnected questions: (i) What is the history of Sino-Nigeria relations? (ii) How has Nigeria's political elites and ordinary Nigerians reacted to Chinese presence? (iii) To what extent is Sino-Nigeria relations beneficial to Nigeria? This paper while identifying and discussing the benefits and underbellies of Sino-Nigeria relations, draws attention to aspects of the relations less discussed in the literature. It concludes that beyond the more popular yet simplistic Janus-headed explication of Sino-Nigeria relations as positive or negative, significant focus is needed to understand the instabilities capable of impacting on the developmental potential of China in Nigeria.

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The integration of Nigeria's economy into the international capitalist system was a defining context of its international economic relations. The country was integrated into the international capitalist system as dependent, peripheral, neo-colonial formation. The nature of external debt, foreign direct investment and economic policy choices reflect the influence of the global north on Nigeria's international economic relations. The management of the national economy and external economic relations respond to the logic of externally defined economic policy choices. This article examines strands of Nigeria's international economic relations and it offers positions to mediate the country's peripheral status. The article prescribes state-led development paradigm and assertive state to address the country's underdevelopment and actualizes robust and assertive foreign economic relations. The state-led development paradigm negates the neo-liberal policy and its preference for state withdrawal. The article insists that the state should play leading role in the development process to reverse the country's underdevelopment and reequip its foreign economic relations.

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