International records / OpenAlex research

NIGERIA AND THE GREAT POWERS: THE IMPACT OF THE CIVIL WAR ON NIGERIAN FOREIGN RELATIONS

TRADITIONALLY AND FORMALLY, the central theme of Nigeria's foreign policy has always been 'non-alignment'. But, like most Third World countries that profess to be non-aligned, Nigeria's stance is far from being truly independent. Indeed, during the civilian administration, Lagos was openly, though not slavishly, pro-West.' In 1967, however, the exigencies of civil war forced the Federal Military Government to court Moscow. Soviet involvement, on the side of the Federalists, introduced another dimension to the conflict. In a sense it transferred the Sino-Soviet differences to Nigeria, and quite…