By Ademola Oshodi The international environment is placing a heavier responsibility on Nigeria. Regional security cooperation has weakened, competition for energy finance and technology has intensified, and humanitarian funding is contracting even as domestic needs increase. Three developments this week show why Nigeria must combine leadership with discipline, strengthening its capacity to act without assuming obligations it cannot sustain. On 14 July, the United Nations Security Council reviewed the political and security situation in West Africa and the Sahel. The following day, Nigeria’s Permanent Representation to the UN convened a discussion on energy access and just transitions during the UN High-Level Political Forum in New York. In Abuja, the Federal Government and the United Nations also began a transition towards stronger Nigerian leadership of humanitarian planning and coordination. These events occurred in different policy areas, but they point to the same reality: Nigeria is being required to carry greater responsibility as external support becomes less predictable. The Security Council discussion exposed the urgency of the regional security challenge. Terrorist and criminal networks are becoming more sophisticated and increasingly able to operate across borders, even as dialogue slowly resumes between ECOWAS member states and the Alliance of Sahel States after a prolonged period of strained relations. Nigeria is directly exposed to both trends. The threat is particularly acute in the Central Sahel and northern Nigeria, where armed groups are using drones, encrypted communications and cryptocurrencies while strengthening links with transnational organised crime. No national security strategy can contain a threat that crosses borders, exploits poorly governed spaces and benefits from fractured regional cooperation. The reopening of the Kamba border crossing between Nigeria and Niger on 9 February was cited at the Security Council as evidence that renewed dialogue is producing practical results. The crossing restores an important commercial route, but its significance goes beyond trade. The political rupture between both governments could not erase the geographic, commercial and security ties between their people. Nigeria and Niger share border communities, trade routes and exposure to armed groups, making practical cooperation unavoidable even while political differences remain unresolved. The administration’s effort to reopen channels with Niger reflects the balance Nigeria must maintain across the region. We must defend constitutional government without allowing political disagreements to disable the security and commercial cooperation demanded by geography. Cutting off practical engagement with the Sahel states would weaken border security and disrupt legitimate trade. Abandoning democratic principles in the name of security would equally damage the regional order Nigeria has spent decades helping to sustain. The credible course is structured engagement. Reopened borders must be supported by stronger intelligence sharing, coordinated patrols, customs cooperation and joint action against arms trafficking and terrorist financing. Nigeria’s leadership will depend on whether it can restore functional cooperation while remaining clear about the political divisions that continue to shape the region. The second development placed energy firmly within foreign policy. At the UN High-Level Political Forum, Nigeria’s Permanent Representation, working with the UNDP Independent Evaluation Office and Germany’s Institute for Development Evaluation, convened a discussion on energy access and just transitions in Africa. The session addressed off-grid energy, affordability, infrastructure, investment, industrial decarbonisation and green jobs, all of which place the energy transition firmly within foreign policy. Transition is now a contest over finance, technology, critical minerals, supply chains and where future industries and jobs will be located. Countries that control investment and processing capacity will capture most of the value, while those that continue to export raw materials and import finished technologies risk reproducing the same dependency under a greener label. Nigeria should reject any climate framework that treats electricity access and industrialisation as secondary concerns. Our participation in the energy transition must produce affordable finance, technology transfer, domestic processing and reliable power. A transition that lowers global emissions while African factories remain without dependable electricity, developing countries accumulate expensive debt, and manufacturing and employment remain concentrated elsewhere cannot be considered just. The New York discussion was useful because it placed these concerns before international institutions and development partners. Its significance, however, will depend on what follows. Nigeria needs bankable pro
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