| Summary/Abstract |
This article, using documentary analysis, adopts a fresh perspective to understanding why Nigeria, in spite of its exceptional potentials, has not attained hegemonic pre-eminence in Africa. Specifically, it seeks to decipher the central driver of the country’s hegemonic conundrum. It notes and argues that although many endogenous factors, alone or in combination, could have worked and are still at work to undercut Nigeria’s quest for regional hegemony, the central factor is the oil-induced rentier political economy which has not only marginalized the indigenous productive sector, but has also institutionalized rentier culture that had tended to feed into the country’s foreign policy processes and, by extension, diminished its stature in the comity of nations. It concludes that in as much as oil remains the central locus and vertebra of the country’s economy, and the country continues to be presided over by leaders who lack the willpower to strategically diversify the economy and institute effective framework for governing the oil sector, the country’s quest for hegemonic pre-eminence in West Africa is more likely to remain a cherished dream.
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