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African is the second largest continent with vast resources and inhabits more than 12
percent of the world’s population (Encarta, 2002). Although the continent has plenty of
resources, Africa remains the world’s poorest and most undeveloped continent. Poverty is
widespread and according to a Human Development Report of 2006, nearly half of the
Africans live below poverty line. Communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and
tuberculosis are prevalent in the continent thereby contributing to the reduction in life
expectancy levels which now linger at about 40 years on average (Human Development
Report, 2006).
Politically, the continent is associated with instability. Since 1960s, most African
countries have experienced civil and liberation wars. In contemporary times, for instance,
Angola, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan Uganda, Eritrea,
Ethiopia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and many other countries have experienced great
instability that has caused millions of people to lose their lives and other millions to have
no homes.
The lack of development in Africa is closely linked to the phenomenon of state weakness
which underlines the need for improved governance as a prerequisite for development in
Africa. Thus, in many African countries, democracy is greatly eluded. Corruption is
widespread and human rights abuses are a norm among many governments in Africa.
Considering the hegemonic positions and the pro-African foreign policies of Nigeria and
South Africa, it is therefore the aim of this paper to examine the leadership roles that
Nigeria and South Africa play in socio-economic and political development of Africa.
Being hegemonies, South Africa and Nigeria have a lot of influence on African affairs
and it is indeed their responsibility to lead Africa into prosperity.
However, questions may arise: can South Africa, a country that brutalised and exploited
its own people, and those of surrounding countries, go on to become a credible champion
of human rights, democracy, and sustainable development on the African continent, even
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after a remarkable political transformation? Can Nigeria, a country that experienced
numerous coup d'états provide political leadership in Africa? Can it afford to help African
continent socio-economically when its large population suffer endemic poverty?
To understand the leadership roles of both Nigeria and South Africa in Africa, the paper
gives a wide range of classic and classical examples that portray both countries as playing
a pivotal role in political and socio-economic development of Africa.
The paper is divided into four parts. After this introduction, the second part looks at
Nigeria’s role in socio-economic and political development of Africa by looking at,
among other things, its contribution to the formation of the Organisation of African Unity
(OAU), its pro-southern African foreign policy, the peacekeeping missions, and the
important role it played in creating the New Partnership for Africa’s Development
(NEPAD). The subsequent part examines South Africa’s hegemonic role in leading Africa
to socio-economic and political development. This stretches to its strong socio-economic
and political dominance in Southern Africa Development Community ( SADC) region and
its overall economic dominance in Africa. The last part of this paper gives a recapitulated
conclusion about the leadership roles of both countries; Nigeria and South Africa.
Nigeria’s significant influence in several African affairs is not surprising. Since its
independence in 1960, Nigerian foreign policy has been characterised by a focus on
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Africa and by attaching to several fundamental principles such as African unity and
independence; peaceful settlement of disputes; nonalignment and non-intentional
interference in the internal affairs of other nations; and regional economic cooperation
and development (http://www.en.wiki.org, 2007). To understand better how Nigeria
implemented and fulfilled these foreign policy objectives, the following paragraphs give
a detailed discussion and classic examples that illustrate its political muscle and
economic capability to influence African affairs.
After OAU’s transformation in 2001, Nigeria still commanded a broad influence within the
African Union. For instance, Nigeria’s former president Olesegun Obasanjo served as
chairman of African Union from May 2004 to September 2005. Because of Nigeria’s
unique military muscle, the Force Commander of the African Union, Major General
Collins Ihekire, is a Nigerian and many of the African Union’s peacekeepers come from
Nigeria (Shoup, 2007).
Nigeria’s primary African commitment was to liberate the continent from the last vestiges
of colonialism and to eradicate apartheid in South Africa. Thus, Nigeria was in close ties
and at one point funded the African National Congress (ANC) that fought the apartheid
regime. With its pro-Southern African foreign policy, Nigeria played a role in the
independence of Zimbabwe and in the late 1980s assisted Namibia to achieve
independence by contributing about US$20 million to assist the South West Africa
People’s Organisation in the 1989 elections and other preparations for independence. It
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also contributed financially to the front line states of Zambia, Tanzania, Mozambique,
and Zimbabwe which were constantly harassed by South Africa
(http://www.pbs.org/newshour, 2007).
Nigeria has not only helped Southern Africa to recover politically. As noted in the
previous paragraphs, Nigeria, with its military muscle, plays a big role of peacekeeping in
African countries that are ravaged by war. Over the past decade, Nigeria has played a
pivotal role in support of peace in Africa. Empirically, Nigeria has deployed troops on
peacekeeping missions to calm conflicts and it has sent diplomats to negotiate political
disputes in various countries (Shoup, 2007). Notably, Nigeria has provided the bulk of
troops for the United Nations peacekeeping mission in countries both within and outside
the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). For example, Nigeria sent
peacekeeping troops to war countries such as Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cote D’Ivoire,
Ethiopia, Eritrea, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Western Sahara.
Nigeria also contributes a significant number of troops to the African Union, which it
helped to create and through which it channels its foreign policy objectives. With the AU,
Nigeria sent peacekeeping forces to an Africa Union mission in Sudan. According to the
United Nations, Nigeria commits about 2,462 soldiers to United Nations missions across
the globe (ibid)
Nigeria has not played political leadership role by liberating Africa from colonialism and
peacekeeping missions only. Just as it helped in founding the Organisation of African
Union, Nigeria strives very hard to consolidate Africa. By ensuring this, Nigeria played a
considerable role in creating the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD),
which apart from looking at socio-economic issues of Africa, also looks widely at
political development of the continent thereby advocating Africa Peer Review
Mechanism, good governance which includes observing rule of law, curbing corruption,
and overall practice of democracy (NEPAD Annual Report, 2005).
Nigeria’s Role in Socio-economic Development of Africa
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Nigeria is not only committed to political development of Africa. It also plays a central
role in socio-economic recovery of Africa. Since its independence and following its
foreign policy objectives, Nigeria has committed resources to organisations that promote
development and economic cooperation between African countries (Coutsoukis, 2005).
For a number of times, Nigeria has given monetary aid and technical assistance to several
African states, often through the African Development Bank of which it was a major
benefactor. As seen in the preceding part, Nigeria gave US$20 million to Namibia and to
other southern African countries (ibid).
In Nigeria’s history, the country has provided scholarships and fellowships, training
facilities, grants, equipment, and medical supplies to African countries. According to
Michael Malakata of Science and Development Network, Nigeria is building African
Institute of Science and Technology (AIST) in many countries, as its contribution to
Africa’s higher education system. It has already started constructing one at the Gulf of
Guinea (Nigeria) and has funded one to be constructed in Zambia. Other beneficiary
countries for AIST are South Africa and Tanzania (Malakata, 2007). In addition, the
Nigerian government also organises and finances a programme to send doctors, lawyers,
teachers, and other professionals to work in other countries (Shoup, 2007).
During the 1970s’ global oil crisis, Nigeria subsidized oil to African countries.
Undoubtedly, this enhanced Nigeria’s position and influence in Africa while building
African solidarity (Coutsoukis, 2005). Still more, Nigerian authorities have helped and
guided policy makers in other countries with their economic reforms in order to realize
economic prosperity in Africa.
In pursuing the goal of regional economic cooperation and development, Nigeria played a
leading role in creating the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)
which seeks to harmonise trade and investment practices for its 15 west African member
countries and ultimately to achieve a full customs union. Through ECOWAS, Nigeria is a
driving economic force in the region and is depended upon by its neighbours.
Leadership Role of South Africa in Africa
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South Africa plays a key economic and political role in Africa (http://www.usaid.gov,
2007). It is a country with vast resources and has remarkable political system in the
contemporary African society. Economically, South Africa’s gross domestic product
(GDP) surpasses that of any other African country, even though it ranks 121 on Human
Development Index (Human Development Report, 2006).
Since its independence in 1910, the country has been influential in the world affairs.
Notably, the country was a founding member of the United Nations with its Prime
Minister Jan Smuts having written the preamble to the UN Charter
(http://www.en.wiki.org, 2007). However, because of apartheid policies, South Africa’s
membership was suspended until in 1994 when it got re-admitted to the United Nations at
the end of apartheid hostilities and now has a permanent seat in the United Nations
Security Council (UNSC) (ibid).
Years before 1994, South Africa’s foreign policy in Africa focussed primarily upon the
southern African region and rested upon a combination of promoting economic interest in
the form of South African exports and investments to the region and military
destabilisation as part of aggressive defensive of apartheid (Gelb, 2001).
After 1994, the realist argument on South Africa policy towards Southern African region
was recast in line with the new political realities, but continued to focus narrowly on
economic and political interests, or mercantilism (ibid). The core interest of South
African policy was promotion of increased trade and investment flows from South Africa
to Southern African Development Community (SADC) and to the rest of sub-Saharan
Africa with a view of enhancing domestic growth and employment creation (Mills,
1997).
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South Africa’s policy towards Africa is shaped by a number of factors. The first factor is
the continent’s failure to develop, which identifies the weak states as the primary
underlying causes of this failure. With South Africa’s economic power and fabulous
political system, the country sees it important to help other countries politically and
socio-economically because the absence of these can also greatly affect South Africa
(Gelb, 2001). The second factor is South Africa’s relative economic dominance especially
in Southern Africa, which is in part the consequence of the rest of the continent’s low
level of development. Thirdly, the African National Congress’s history as a liberation
movement substantially dependent upon a number of African countries as it struggled
against apartheid during 30 years of exile. The fourth factor is the international context
and in particular the process of globalisation which is the heart of international relations
today and undermines the national sovereignty of countries even more so in the
developing world (ANC, 1997).
Thus, globalisation has increased the importance of cross border externalities and the
impact of development within societies in the global and regional economies. These
externalities have been a major influence both in shaping South Africa’s Africa policy
and increasing Africa’s importance in global security and global welfare (Gelb, 2001).
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example, the country has sent about 3000 peacekeepers to conflict zones such as Burundi,
the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Sudan under the auspices of the United
Nations (Gelb, 2001).
Still more, South Africa is greatly involved in several mediation and negotiations at both
regional and sub-regional levels. Empirically, South Africa, through President Mbeki has
been involved in a number of mediation and negotiation talks with various leaders all
over the continent. In notable examples, Mbeki has mediated in the Democratic Republic
of Congo upon the irregularities of the previous presidential elections. He has also gone
to the West African sub-region to hold talks with various warring countries there. South
Africa is also pushed to try to mediate between Robert Mugabe and the opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai to resolve the growing tension there that has resulted into a serious
economic crisis and political instability.
After the apartheid era, South Africa adopted a strong policy in favour of both sub-
regional and continental integration. Immediately after adopting a democratic
government and ending all apartheid policies, South Africa joined Southern African
Development Community (SADC) and was a key actor in establishing the AU in 2002 that
succeeded the Organisation for African Unity. It once chaired the African Union and the
latter’s Pan African Parliament is hosted in Midrand, South Africa (Gelb, 2001).
Furthermore, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development formerly known as the New
African Initiative (NAI) represents the clearest expression, thus far, of the South Africa’s
national interests on the continent, which is to improve economic and political
governance as a basis for enhanced economic development. Among the five initiating
members of New Partnership for Africa’s Development, South Africa, Algeria, Senegal,
Egypt and Nigeria, South Africa is the strongest, both in economic and political influence
in sub-Saharan Africa and its role is increasingly being questioned else where in Africa.
Proponents view South Africa’s role in NEPAD as necessary of a pivotal state that acts in
the regional interests in collaboration with other countries (Dube Sinile, 2004).
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South Africa’s Socio-Economic Role in Africa
As seen in the preceding paragraph, South Africa has been economically prosperous since
its independence in 1910. However, the country could not integrate with other African
countries, with exception of Malawi and Cote D’Ivoire (Encarta, 2002), because many
African countries opposed its apartheid policies. Therefore, its economic influence on
African continent was less visible as compared to the present day.
With its vast economic resources, South Africa has established economic empires nearly
in all countries of Africa. In the SADC region, the country is the biggest exporter of
commodities and many other SADC countries such as Malawi, Zambia, and Mozambique
rely on South African markets for export.
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The Southern African Development Community region, Africa, and active diplomacy on
behalf of developing countries in multilateral institutions are the policy anchors under
Mbeki administration (Garth le Pere and Anthoni van Nieuwkerk, 2006). South Africa’s
active multilateral engagement is meant to address the more pernicious effects of
globalisation by strongly advocating for a greater say by developing countries in global
governance, for alleviating the debt and other economic problems of poor states, and for
reform of multilateral bodies to make them more sensitive to the particular needs of
developing countries (Nel et al., 2001:2-3).
The South African government has been active in developing trade agendas for Africa,
SADC, and least developed countries since the 1999 Seattle Ministerial Conference of the
World Trade Organisation (WTO), and has promoted an activist trade diplomacy on behalf
of developing countries in every ministerial meeting since Seattle. The government, and
especially the Minister of Finance, Trevor Manuel, have spoken out against the role of the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) in perpetuating the debt crisis and the International
Financial Institutions (IFI) undemocratic structures and practices (Garth le Pere and
Anthoni van Nieuwkerk, 2006).
Conclusion
South Africa and Nigeria have played a very big political and socio-economic leadership
role in Africa. Their contribution to the continent puts them on a unique angle as
possessing power over African countries.
This paper has given a wide range of demonstration on how Nigeria and South Africa
play a leadership role in Africa. In the recent time, however, Nigeria seems to have been
overtaken by South Africa in terms of being vocal and gaining socio-economic control of
Africa probably because of widespread corruption and political instability, particularly in
the Niger Delta. With its numerous industries, South Africa seems to have established
business empires all over the continent. As discusses in the previous section, South Africa
is again the voice of African countries in international organisations such as World Trade
Organisation and at the United nations.
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Despite the cordial relationship the two countries enjoyed, the most significant event in
South Africa’s post apartheid Africa’s policy was the bruising battle with Nigeria in
1995/1996. After the brutal hanging of general Sanni Abacha’s regime of Nigerian
activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, and eight of his fellow Ongoni campaigners during the
commonwealth summit in Auckland, New Zealand in November 1995, a deeply betrayed
Mandela called for the imposition of oil sanctions on Nigeria and advocated the West
African Gulliver’s expulsion from the commonwealth. This policy failed spectacularly to
gain African support and South Africa found itself diplomatically isolated (Gelb, 2001).
However, with the new regime of Mbeki, Nigeria and South Africa are close allies and
they both have influence in their respective sub-regions; namely the Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Southern African Development
Community (SADC).
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