Author: Pat Utomi.

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 expan- sive engagement. While, like most other African countries in the 1960s and 70s, Nigeria viewed China as a nonaligned developing country, it did little to foster business or even special diplomatic relations with the Asian giant. Nigeria’s trade focused primarily on European and North American coun- tries, which proclaimed themselves development partners. China’s own economic and political challenges made it an unlikely development partner at that time. Following Deng Xiaopeng’s reform policies of the 1970s and 80s, China’s dramatic growth and modernization, and attendant industrial, energy, and market expansion needs, brought it into greater contact with Africa. Its new expanded presence offered a partnership seen by many stakeholders as an alternative model to Western relationships. China’s increasing presence in Nigeria, and elsewhere in Africa, has spurred much speculation about the nature of the emerging partnership model. A national debate across sectors on this part- nership will be a healthy exercise and may drive more rigorous analysis of what best serves African countries’ quest for human material advance; friendly, mutually beneficial relations in trade and politics; and stewardship of the shared heritage of the planet. There is a tendency in analyses of Chinese engagement in Africa to view African perspectives on the relationship with China—and African government perspectives, even more so—as mono- lithic. In fact, perspectives within Nigeria are far from uniform whether on China’s motives, on potential competition with Western partners, or on the possibilities of cooperation between old and new partners. This paper focuses on how various stakeholders in Nigeria view China’s engage- ment. The study is based on interviews with a wide array of actors, including Nigerian government officials, businessmen, academics, and residents of Chinese extraction who have lived and oper - ated in Nigeria for many years. Other groups interviewed for the study include Chinese diplomats in Nigeria, Chinese traders and leaders, and Chinese project teams.