Rethinking Nigeria’s Strategic Relationship with its Immediate Neighbours

This paper strengthens the perspective that the national security and development of a state are predicated upon the good and strategic relationship of countries with their immediate neighbours. It centres its argument around the fact that the global system in the 21st century has been characterized by ups and downs that have shaken the grounds of global peace and security and that growing diminution of the “global village”, due to increasing interdependence of states and non-state actors,has necessitated an ever-rising need for collective security on global and regional scale. Nigeria’s foreign policy has often been said to be characterized by the principle of good neighbourliness for the purpose of secure neighbourhood and national security. Indeed, the numerous security challenges of the country at present, such as ethnic conflicts,religious fundamentalism, power tussle and insurgency, require shared security intelligence, regional military cooperation and of course, good neighbourliness. This enterprise constitutes a search for a deeper understanding of ‘good neighbourliness’ and suggests a redefinition of that stance to reflect realpolitik. The paper seeks to critically identify the new ways in which Nigeria can strategically relate with its immediate neighbours, including Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Equatorial Guinea and nearby countries that do not share boundaries with it. Emphasis is made on the need for the government to pursue dynamic, tactical and strategic defence policy, which will include ensuring the impenetrability and prevention of infiltration of its boundaries, in view of the fact most of the national security problems testing the corporate existence of Nigeria todayare from its borders