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Tuesday, November 25 marked the 65th anniversary of the relationship between Nigeria and the Russian federation, which began on November 25, 1960, barely two months after Nigeria gained its independence from Britain. Known then as the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation became one of the first major powers to establish full diplomatic relations with Nigeria. It marked the beginning of a robust diplomatic engagement that has evolved into a multifaceted relationship with tangible economic, military, educational, and strategic benefits to both countries.
Becoming friends with Nigeria was easy. Nigeria was seen then as a promising leader of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and a counterweight to Western influence in Africa. Its leaders at the time looked forward to diversify its friendship and seek partnerships that would reduce its dependence on Britain. Embracing Russia was an option. And, it has paid off. The most visible early benefit of this relationship started to emerge through education and human capital development with more than 25,000 Nigerians achieving their education dreams through fully funded university scholarship in the old Soviet Union. Through this window, Nigeria harvested many engineers, doctors, geologists, and military officers who were absorbed in the civil and public service as the foundational cadre that helped to build Nigeria’s early post-independence infrastructure. Currently, Russia offers about 500 state scholarships annually to Nigerian students, with thousands more studying on private or state-sponsored programmes.
The Ajaokuta Steel Complex, which is still begging to be fully completed, remains the most ambitious, and audacious, symbol of Nigeria’s friendship with Russia. It was designed and constructed with Russian technology and expertise. It was intended to kick-start Nigeria’s romance with self-sufficiency in steel production, but not yet. However, Russia is committed to its revival and completion. In 2019 and again in 2023, Russian firms, including Tyazhpromexport and Novastal, signed agreements with Nigeria to complete and modernise the plant, which when operational, could produce between 3 million tonnes to 5 million tonnes of steel annually. This will drastically slash Nigeria’s US$6 billion annual steel import bill and create tens of thousands of direct and indirect jobs.
Nigeria also felt Russia’s impact on the military field with support for the Federal Republic in the war to strengthen Nigeria’s unity. Russia stepped in when Britain, the United States and many of Nigeria’s western allies had either embargoed arms sales to the Federal Government or openly supported the Biafran quest. Focused on Nigeria’s unity, the Soviet Union stepped in with military assistance supplying Nigeria with MiG fighters, Ilyushin bombers, artillery, and T-54/55 tanks. Soviet pilots and instructors also operated alongside the Nigerian forces offering technical assistance and knowledge transfer. Russia’s military support to Nigeria did not end with the civil war. It continued into contemporary times. For instance, Moscow backed Nigeria’s fight against jihadist insurgency in the Lake Chad Basin and the Sahel regions. The development tasked Nigeria militarily and Russia worked out support that boosted Nigeria’s weapons capabilities with Mi-35M attack aircrfat, Mi-17 transport helicopters, and various armored vehicles. It also armed Nigeria with Yak-130 attack aircraft when the Barack Obama administration frustrated Nigeria’s efforts to acquire twelve A-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft. Russia’s Yak-130 alternative filled the gap. Generally, Russian’s military support as helped Nigerian forces regain spaces occupied by Boko Haram and ISWAP jihadists in Borno and Yobe states.
Russia’s imprimatur is also visible on Nigeria’s nuclear energy programme. The signing, in 2009, of an intergovernmental agreement on peaceful nuclear energy cooperation with Russia, kick started Nigeria’s journey towards developing a nuclear power programme and building its first nuclear power plant to achieve the plan for Nigeria’s self-sufficiency in power generation and utilisation. Russia committed to assisting Nigeria breakthrough with the development. Though progress on that field has been bridged, Russia’s Rosatom remains the designated partner.
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Russia’s renewed interest in Africa, articulated in the first Russia–Africa Summit in Sochi in 2019 and reinforced at the second summit in St. Petersburg in 2023, found in Nigeria its most important West African partner. Russian companies like Lukoil, Gazprom, and Rosatom, had signed multibillion-dollar memoranda in oil, gas, and nuclear energy. In 2022 for instance, Lukoil acquired a 49% stake in the Green Energy International Limited, a Nigerian upstream company. The partnership gained for Russia, access to Oil Mining Leases 86 and 88 with estimated reserves exceeding 500 million barrels. Also, Russia’s Gazprom is involved in feasibility studies for extending the Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline and the AKK (Ajaokuta–Kaduna–Kano) pipeline, projects that could eventually link Nigerian gas to European markets.
In agriculture, Russia accounts for approximately 1 million to 1.5 million tonnes of wheat import to Nigeria annually. In exchange, Nigeria has become Russia’s largest African supplier of cocoa beans, exporting roughly 50,000 tonnes to 70,000 tonnes per year. Russian fertilizer companies such as Uralchem and Phos supply hundreds of thousands of tonnes of urea and NPK fertilizers, often on concessional terms, to Nigeria. These have been instrumental in boosting maize, rice, and cassava yields in Nigeria.
For Nigeria, Russia represents diversification away from over-dependence on Western partners whose arms sales and development assistance often come with stringent conditionalities. And for Russia, Nigeria is the gateway to West Africa and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), with economic indicators that few African countries can match. Russia does not dictate to Nigeria on governance or democracy. It focuses more on pragmatic deals. In international fora, Russia has consistently supported Nigeria’s bid for a permanent seat on a reformed UN Security Council and Nigeria has consistently reciprocated this support by abstaining from the UN vote in 2022 to condemn Russia’s strategic military action in Ukraine. Nigeria expressed this reciprocal support on grounds of historical gratitude and economic ties.
However, despite frequent western media criticisms, which aim to deter Russia’s military support and strategic assistance to Nigeria with orchestrated negative stereotyping, Nigeria and Russia remain focused on the broader trajectory of their relationship. Both countries have shown clear stronger political will to deepen ties and sustain the relationship for mutual benefits. Both have successfully built one of the most substantive state-to-state relationships on the African continent. From the Soviet scholarships that educated a generation of Nigerian professionals to contemporary energy, defence, and agricultural deals, the partnership has delivered concrete benefits.
This suggests that in an increasingly multipolar world, Nigeria has a reliable friend in Russia. This relationship is sustainable so long as both sides continue to identify, and work on overlapping interests. The next 65 years of this relationship may see a completed Ajaokuta steel mill rolling out its first Nigerian-made rails, Russian-built nuclear reactors feeding the national grid, and joint ventures, like the stalled $1 billion aluminum smelter project with RUSAL at Ikot Abasi, while extracting and processing Nigeria’s critical minerals for the global market. If the past be a guide, then, the partnership will continue to evolve in mutually beneficial directions.
