Pax-Nigeriana and Nigeria’s Conflict Management in Africa in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

Nigeria’s advocacy for the ‘African solutions to African problems’ has been a critical component of its African diplomacy since its independence in 1960. This advocacy finds its loudest expression in the leadership roles it played in peacekeeping and peace-building efforts in the continent in tandem with what has been dubbed Pax-Nigeriana. However, less than a decade since returning to democratic governance in 1999, Nigeria’s commitment to the peacekeeping efforts has been waning. In spite of its globally acknowledged regional security provider, Nigeria’s interventions in a number of regional countries leave much to be desired. This study, therefore, argues that the plethora of domestic security challenges in Nigeria has had dire implications for conflict management in Africa. The study, which relies on personal observation and secondary sources, contends that Nigeria’s declining commitment to its self-assigned ‘responsibility to protect’ in Africa as vividly demonstrated in Mali’s operation and other contexts portend bleak future for the effective peacekeeping operations in the continent. The paper concludes by recommending that domestic issues such as terrorism and inequality in the polity among others must be addressed if Nigeria wants to continue playing its traditional leadership role in West Africa especially in the security sector.
 Keywords: African security, African solutions to African problems, conflict management, Pax-Nigeriana, responsibility to protect

Environment-Conflict Nexus in the Sahel Region: Lake Chad as a Case in Point

“…Policy postures to resolve these issues are influenced by factors such as the reluctance of Nigeria, where IISWAP originated, to take a leadership role, hindering corporations in Lake Chad. This is indicative of the geopolitical imperatives of influential regional players in hydrocarbons as well as the political necessities of regimes in the region 43 . Other international actors including France, have been identified as having played a part in the prolongation of the environmentconflict nexus by providing defence equipment to regional actors to curry favour with regional actors 44 .…”