Nigeria: Section 3 - Analysis

摘要

Overview: Security Environment. For over two decades, Nigeria has served as the regional hegemon of western sub-Saharan Africa. By virtually any measure of influence and power, Nigeria is the dominant nation in the region: Its $201 billion economy is the largest in west Africa, it possess the largest oil and gas reserves in the Gulf of Guinea, it is Africa's most populous nation with 149 million citizens, and its 82,000-strong military is the largest in West Africa and among the largest on the continent. Likewise, Nigeria's dominance of the region's security and economic environments has had a profound impact on how it operates in such an arena. Quick to recognize that the domestic instability of neighboring states could be exported in the form of negative security and economic externalities to Nigeria, the government in Abuja has, since 2000, taken a proactive role in ensuring regional stability through the deployment of peacekeeping forces throughout sub-Saharan Africa.