Nigeria's Intervention in the Sierra Leonean Civil War

Abstract

This article employs the ‘hegemony theory' to
examine Nigeria's inter-state relations visà-
vis Sierra Leone within the broad context
of the West African sub-regional multilateral
institutional framework, ECOWAS. This study
examines Nigeria's self-imposed leadership
role, as enunciated in its foreign policy, and
uncovers the dilemma of preventive diplomacy
vs an insurgent/irregular confl ict scenario
by a non-neutral party. It also scrutinises
Nigeria's status as a benign hegemon and
the country's quandary caused by its own
economic crisis, in the midst of being the major
fi nancier of a military operation in Sierra
Leone. Nigeria's ‘unilateral' interference in
Sierra Leone, rather than being spurred by
the country's national interests, was instead
a product of Nigerian military's head of
state, General Abacha's, parochial goals.

African Insight Vol. 36 (3&4) 2006: pp. 76-94