France’s Nigeria Pivot After the Sahel: Partnership or Strategic Convenience?
France’s influence in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger has weakened sharply following military takeovers, the withdrawal of French forces and the growing role of Russian-backed security partnerships. Against that backdrop, Paris has intensified engagement with Nigeria, West Africa’s largest economy and a country it did not formerly colonise. The renewed relationship includes French development financing and cooperation on security, trade, education, agriculture and energy. However, Tinubu’s repeated visits to France have also raised questions at home about whether Abuja is investing more diplomatic energy in the partnership than Paris is. Nigeria’s intervention to support Benin during the attempted December 2025 coup has deepened the debate. Some see Nigeria as helping preserve French interests in Francophone West Africa by proxy. Others argue that Nigeria acted to protect its own border security and reinforce its long-standing leadership role in ECOWAS. The available facts support either interpretation, making this a legitimate foreign-policy debate rather than a settled conclusion.
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