Nigeria-China Economic Relations, 2000-2010

ABSTRACT Since the post-Cold War era China is perceived as being a rising super power. This perception is linked to the changes in China’s foreign policy role that took place these past few years as China’s foreign policy “possesses a predominant strategic content based on geopolitical considerations.” Nigeria’s relations with China have grown in the last decade from the limited and intermittent contact that marked the immediate post-independence era to an increasingly complex and expansive engagement. Despite cooperation between China and Nigeria in areas of trade, foreign direct investment (FDI), aids and in the political sphere, there is glaring disparity in terms of economic development and level of industrialization between Nigeria and China. This study sets out to examine how the colonial legacy has affected the relationship between Nigeria and China, 2000 to 2010.The central questions to this study are; Does Nigerian economic underdevelopment lead to unequal trade relations between her and China?, and does the capitalist expansion of China increase its economic relations with Nigeria? We hypothesized that Nigeria’s P a g e | 14 economic underdevelopment leads to unequal trade relations between her and China, and that China’s capitalist expansion leads to increase unequal economic relations with Nigeria. The study employed secondary sources for data collection, relied on the ex-post facto research design, and with analysis that was qualitative descriptive. Findings based on the Marxist theory of Post-colonial state revealed that the economic relations between Nigeria and China is not mutually beneficial due to the fact that the colonial legacy of Nigeria affected the formation of the Nigerian state, which is weak and subservient to foreign capital. Worse still the ruling elites in Nigeria see the control of state power as a means of building up their material bases through corrupt means. This weak nature of the state and the character of the ruling elites then hindered the development of science and technology in Nigeria which would have in turn led to the overall development of the Nigerian economy, thereby placing Nigeria in a disadvantaged position in her relations with China. Finding also revealed that that it was the need to search and secure oil that is needed for energy and also to find markets for it wide range of finished goods that turned China from an inward looking country to an outward looking country thereby leading to their capitalist expansion. The study recommends amongst other things that there must be a leader who is sincere, has foresight vision and Nigeria at hearth. Not merely by saying it as common with our leaders but by doing it, and also the government of Nigeria should as a matter of fact provide adequate funding to research institutions in Nigeria.