Abstract

Foreign relations, often known as international diplomacy, have the primary objective of advancing a country’s interests and managing its relationships with other international actors. In this regard, Nigeria and China established official relations in 1971, although contacts between them dated long before that period. The relationship has since grown to encompass major areas of mutual economic, strategic, trade, and infrastructure cooperation. However, much of the controversies trailing most analysis on Nigeria-China relations revolve around Beijing’s role as “development partner”, or “neo-colonizer” in Nigeria. This paper investigated some contentious issues in Nigeria-China relations. The paper adopted a qualitative research design supplemented with interview with purposively selected experts in Nigeria’s foreign affairs and Nigeria-China relations. Participants were drawn from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Nigerian Institute of International Affairs. Interview guide was used for data collection which was thematically analyzed. Anchored on the complex interdependence theory, the paper argued in favour of mutual interdependence of the countries notwithstanding the perceived imbalance in the relationship. The study found that Nigeria-China relations have been both asymmetric and complementary. While Nigeria hopes to replicate China’s development trajectory, commercial interests underlie China’s partnership and relations with Nigeria. The study concluded that Nigeria-China relations have yielded meaningful gains to both countries. Over the years, the gains manifested in economic, strategic, and other benefits which have also become a subject of controversy in the literature. The study recommended a more deepening of the Nigeria-China relations that focus on addressing the imbalance. Nigeria should exercise agency in its relations with China as co-equals and development partners.

Keywords: China, China-Nigeria, Cooperation, Development, Interdependence