Foreign relations of Nigeria
Nigeria has additionally founded regional cooperative efforts in West Africa, functioning as standard-bearer for ECOWAS and ECOMOG, economic and military organisations, respectively.
That support helped tip the balance in their favour, which led to OAU recognition of the MPLA over the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola.
[3] Nigeria extended diplomatic support to another cause, Sam Nujoma's Southwest Africa People's Organization in Namibia, to stall the apartheid South African-installed government there.
Nigeria also sent military equipment to Mozambique to help the newly independent country suppress the South African-backed Mozambican National Resistance guerrillas.
Nigeria also provided some military training at the Kaduna first mechanised army division and other material support to Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe's guerrilla forces during the Zimbabwe War in 1979 against the white minority rule of Prime Minister Ian Douglas Smith, which was backed by the apartheid -government of South Africa.
[citation needed] Due to mismanagement of its economy and technology, Nigeria announced that it was launching a nuclear programme of "unlimited scope" of its own but failed.
In 1982, the Alhaji Shehu Shagari government urged the visiting Pontiff Pope John Paul II to grant audience to the leaders of Southern Africa guerrilla organisations Oliver Tambo of the ANC and Sam Nujoma of SWAPO.
[citation needed] In pursuing the goal of regional economic cooperation and development, Nigeria helped create ECOWAS, which seeks to harmonise trade and investment practices for its 16 West African member countries, ultimately achieve a full customs union, and establish a single currency.
The President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, sent a message to his Angolan counterpart, José Eduardo dos Santos, in which he manifested his interest in keeping and strengthening the excellent relations that exist between both countries, aiming at generating better benefits for the two peoples.
Despite these strains, however, Nigerians had assisted in the halting process of achieving stability in Chad, and both nations reaffirmed their intention to maintain close ties.
A bloodless coup in August 1985 had brought Major General Ibrahim Babangida to power in Nigeria, and Rawlings took advantage of the change of administration to pay an official visit.
The two leaders discussed a wide range of issues focusing on peace and prosperity within West Africa, bilateral trade, and the transition to democracy in both countries.
After the takeover in November 1993 by General Sani Abacha as the new Nigerian head of state, Ghana and Nigeria continued to consult on economic, political, and security issues affecting the two countries and West Africa as a whole.
Between early August 1994 when Rawlings became ECOWAS chairman and the end of the following October, the Ghanaian president visited Nigeria three times to discuss the peace process in Liberia and measures to restore democracy in that country.
[186] In addition Gaddafi had praised the Partition of India, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, as the kind of model that Nigeria should follow.
[185] The National Assembly also passed a motion urging the government to order an African Union investigation into whether Libya was attempting to destabilise the country through "infiltrators".
[188] Both countries established diplomatic relations on 8 June 1961 when M. Elhad Camatte Hammodon Maiga, ambassador of Niger to Nigeria presented his letters of credentials to the Governor General Azikiwe[36] Nigeria maintains close relations with the Republic of Niger, in part because both nations share a large Hausa minority on each side of their 1500 km border.
[192] Both countries established diplomatic relations on 21 February 1994[194] In 2006 the Governor Otunba Gbenga Daniel of the Nigerian state of Ogun announced that Barbadians would be given free land if they wished to move to Nigeria.
As the transition to democracy progressed, the removal of visa restrictions, increased high-level visits of U.S. officials, discussions of future assistance, and the granting of a Vital National Interest Certification on counter-narcotics, effective in March 1999, paved the way for re-establishment of closer ties between the United States and Nigeria, as a key partner in the region and the continent.
Since the inauguration of the democratically elected Obasanjo government, the bilateral relationship has continued to improve, and cooperation on many important foreign policy goals, such as regional peacekeeping, has been good.
[226] In July 2019, UN ambassadors of 37 countries, including Nigeria, have signed a joint letter to the UNHRC defending China's treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang region.
[234] Both countries established diplomatic relations on 16 February 1961 when Turkey Consulate General was upgraded to Embassy level with Mr. Özer Fuat Tevs as Chargé d'Affaires.
