Nigeria’s Border Diplomacy in Africa: A Contraption of ‘Security Realism’ and Pan-Africanism

Abstract

Following the adoption of the Organisation of African Unity -OAU (now African Union -AU) led African-wide border arrangement, which provides for the ‘sacredness’ of the inherited colonial borders in 1964, Nigeria deployed its geographical advantage as an instrument of diplomatic relations in the continent. Drawing from field observation and data collected through key informant interviews with Nigerian border enforcement officials, the study contends that in the quest to explore the inherent benefits of the borders, Nigeria’s border diplomacy has taken two opposing outlooks of nationalism and ‘Pan-Africanism’. It argues that, albeit contradictory, the two border postures follow the same pattern of a state-centric ‘top-down’ approach, which has proven ineffective in arresting the border situation. Thus, in addressing the border challenges to salvage its national security debacle, the study submits that Nigeria must understand its borders’ dynamics while deploying a practicable border diplomatic approach from the ‘below’ that factors the dynamics of its border regions and other non-state/sub-national transborder actors in the country.