CHINA’S SOFT POWER AND STRATEGIC DIPLOMACY IN NIGERIA: A NEO-IMPERIAL PERSPECTIVE.

Abstract

China’s expanding engagement in Nigeria represents a critical dimension of its broader global strategy under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). While Beijing presents its relationship with Abuja as a mutually beneficial “win–win” partnership, growing evidence suggests that Chinese soft power and strategic diplomacy are producing asymmetric outcomes. This study interrogates China’s deployment of soft power instruments, such as Confucius Institutes, media collaborations, educational scholarships, and infrastructure diplomacy, and examines how these tools reinforce China’s geopolitical and economic interests in Nigeria. Anchored in the neo-imperial theoretical framework, the paper analyses how economic statecraft, cultural diplomacy, and elite-driven bilateral agreements collectively generate new forms of dependency reminiscent of historical imperial patterns. Using qualitative, document-based methods and secondary data from scholarly works, official reports, and media analyses, the study reveals that while China’s presence contributes to infrastructural and cultural development, it also undermines Nigeria’s policy autonomy and fosters structural dependency. The paper concludes that Nigeria’s engagement with China, if not guided by transparency, diversification, and reciprocity, risks entrenching a modern form of neo-imperial subordination under the guise of South–South cooperation.