Nigeria's efforts in peace support operations in Africa: Evidence from Liberia

The African continent has been plagued by numerous conflicts and crises, and Nigeria, a prominent African nation, has consistently been one of the key contributors to international peacekeeping effort and of particular interest in Liberia. Liberia's conflict was characterized by numerous warring factions, shifting alliances, and a blurred distinction between combatants and civilians. Hence the Nigerian troops found themselves in the midst of a volatile and multifaceted conflict, decimated infrastructure which constrained maintaining troops, equipment, and supplies in remote areas with limited infrastructure. This study interrogated Nigeria's efforts in peace support operations (PSO) in Africa with particular reference to Liberia, viz a viz Nigeria ability to achieve strategic alliance and post-conflict relationships to justify her limitless budget spending in almost all the continent PSOs. The study adopted exploratory research design while content analysis of publicly available archive documents was employed for the analysis. Secondary data were generated via journals publication and other documented materials relevant to the study. Finding that emanate from the study revealed that most PSOs by Nigeria was not informed by consensus strategic alliance of either economic nor political interest. The study also submitted that there is dearth of post-conflict relationships between Nigeria and war torn nations demanding for PSOs. The study therefore recommends that Nigeria military in deploying for PSO must be of strategic alliance whose end results must justify the expensive sacrifices in both human and financial resources, clearly spelt out in terms and consensus reached. Study also recommends that the exit strategies and the post-conflict relationships must also pave way to a full recovery in the least, of the investments made in the PSO intervention, as no country engages in a PSO without a reason.