INTERNATIONAL RESPONSES TO NIGERIA'S DEMOCRATISATION PRACTICE, 1979-1999: SELFISH OR EGALITARIAN ACT?

Abstract

This article interrogates the motives behind international responses to Nigeria’s turbulent democratisation between 1979 and 1999. Employing the theoretical lenses of the Third Wave of Democratisation and Democratic Peace Theory, it argues that while Western powers and international institutions publicly championed democracy for normative reasons, their actions were predominantly shaped by strategic and economic self-interest. Through a chronological analysis of Nigeria's Second Republic, the military regimes of Buhari and Babangida, and the pariah Abacha dictatorship, the study demonstrates that international support was consistently contingent upon the protection of commercial interests, debt repayment, and Cold War alignment. The critical omission of an oil embargo against the Abacha regime starkly reveals the limits of normative action when it clashes with vital material interests, underscoring that egalitarian commitments were ultimately secondary to economic and strategic calculations.