Salient Foreign Policy implications of Nigeria’s Role in Regional Integration and Peacekeeping in Africa

Nigeria has made more contributions than any other nation on the African continent to the decolonization and complete independence of Africa, in addition to supporting the preservation of political stability, security, and peace in several African nations. Among those nations are Congo, Chad, Ivory Coast, Mali, Liberia, Somalia, and Sierra Leone. Because of this, the global community praised Nigeria's efforts to keep the peace in some of the region’s most volatile areas. Some of these nations that benefited from Nigeria's kind gestures returned them with ingratitude. In light of this, this study looks at Nigeria's regional integration and peacekeeping and their consequences for the nation's foreign policy. The study utilized secondary data obtained from books, newspaper articles, bulletins, textbooks, journal articles, internet resources, and e-books, which were consulted for the purpose of this study. The Hegemonic Stability Theory by Kindleberger (1973) was used to interrogate the concept for understanding Nigeria’s regional integration and peacekeeping efforts. Findings from the study show that Liberia, Sierra Leone, and other West African nations do not recognize Nigeria's contributions to the peace process in the region, which is why they voted against the country’s application for and pursuit of a non-permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council. Consequently, the study recommends that Nigeria should exercise greater diplomacy and reason when determining whether to participate in peacekeeping efforts both within and outside the African continent.