Nigeria-China Relations: Gains and Challenges

Abstract

China’s emergence in Nigeria has been of interest to many. Its re-emergence is seen as a combination of optimism, concern and puzzlement. There is intense debate generally by this re-emergence which centred on two core issues; what motivates the present engagement and what are its implications for Nigeria’s development? However, many have argued that the engagement is apparently meant to repeat what western countries did decades ago when they exploited Nigeria’s resources and governed same. This had led to many questions whether China is a new colonizer, an exploiter or a partner in development. While there is no one-to-one way to disparage this, the fact remains that China sees African continent and Nigeria in particular as a new investment frontier and politically. China is keen on exploring the opportunities the continent presents and prepared to continue giving development assistance to African countries. This paper presents China’s emergence in Nigeria as a potential gain in areas such as providing alternative market, infrastructural development, and investments in telecommunication, satellite and so on. However challenges abound such as the flooding of cheap and sub-standard goods, negating to develop a grassroot based economy, the political will to carry the development aspirations of the people, the institutionalisation of basic structural changes and articulating the rules of engagement. The study concluded that the Nigerian government should encourage massive direct investment and the location of production facilities in Nigeria by the Chinese firms rather than trade relations to correct the imbalance and provide more jobs for Nigerians.