50 Years of Sino-Nigerian Relations

Numerous scholars have discussed the dynamics of Sino-Nigerian relations. For example, political science professor, Steven Jackson, measures the temperature of Sino-Nigerian relations from the 1970s from the Nigerian civil war,  China’s economic expansion, to Nigeria’s democratic venture and the contemporary politics of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). In Jackson’s analysis, Sino-Nigerian relations began and maintained a tepidness from 1971 and for a long time after that, the Nigerian and Chinese governments found themselves on the opposite sides of the political tussles between the global powers. For example, at the beginning of the relationship, while Russia supported the Nigerian government’s war efforts against Biafra, China leaned towards supporting anti-colonial struggles in opposition of Russia and the United States and engaging in the Non-Aligned Movement. Senior research fellow at the Centre for China Studies in Abuja, Joseph Golwa, on the other hand, traces Sino-Nigerian relations through the Bandung conference of 1955, the strategic partnership that developed from 1971 onwards, and Nigeria’s membership in the Forum on China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and the BRI. According to this perspective, Sino-Nigerian relations have been warm, centred on four characteristics, which Golwa identifies in the historical and contemporary development of the relationship as friendship, partnership, brotherliness and togetherness.