NIGERIA AND THE COMMONWEALTH 1960-2017

ABSTRACT Nigeria’s external relations relation could be categorized into three era viz, the colonial era, post-colonial period (when military rule dominated the political scene) and the period from 1999 to date, when democratic governance begins to take roots. During each era, the country’s external relations were premised on various factors, such as the form and structure of governance, concurrent international political and economic dispensation, idiosyncrasies of the political class, and the economic prowess of the country at the material time. This patterns have determined the friends or allies or otherwise for Nigeria since the 1960 to 2019. In essence, the country has tended to develop closer relationship with one country to the other most with especially the commonwealth countries. In the light of the foregoing submissions, this research will examine the basic trends in Nigeria’s external relations and observes that such factors as inconsistent policies, undemocratic practices mono-economy, and insecurity, among others have continued to affect Nigeria status among the comity of nations. While adopting on analytical methodology with emphasis on primary and secondary sources. This research concluded that Nigeria needs to re-energize her national interests in order to gain her rightful place among the comity of nations most especially in commonwealth nations