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Jun 8, 2026
Adekeye Adebajo
Nigeria’s increasingly close relationship with France marks a departure from six decades of foreign policy aimed at reducing French influence in West Africa. An increasingly close relationship with a power that has long sought to undermine Nigerian influence in West Africa will benefit only politically connected business elites.
PRETORIA—At first glance, Nigeria and France make for an unlikely pair. Nigeria, after all, is the “giant of Africa,” whose vast potential has too often been undermined by weak institutions and poor governance. France, by contrast, is a former imperial power clinging to a military posture that looks increasingly anachronistic in a postcolonial world.
