Since taking office in 2023, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has developed an unusually close rapport with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, making Paris his most frequent foreign destination. (Facebook/ Bayo Onanuga)
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.
Yet the two countries share some striking similarities. Both possess an inflated sense of their own importance—a politique de grandeur that often privileges style over substance, sustained by nostalgia for past glory. They have also cultivated national identities associated with fashion, good food, and joie de vivre. And both must contend with more economically powerful regional rivals: South Africa and Germany.
These shared traits help explain the increasingly warm relationship between Nigeria and France. Since taking office in 2023, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has developed an unusually close rapport with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, making Paris his most frequent foreign destination. In 2021, the two countries established the France-Nigeria Business Council, which met at last month’s Franco-African summit in Nairobi.
