Can the Crippled Giant Walk Again? Evaluating Nigeria’s Rising State Credentials in Environmental Resource Governance

Abstract

Nigeria, often referred to as the “Giant of Africa”, has long been perceived as an emerging power with evident regional influence, a perception that stems from its foreign policy adopted by successive administrations since independence. However, internal challenges have transformed the accolade into a “crippled giant” in literature. Drawing on secondary sources, this paper assesses Nigeria's credentials as a rising state in an emerging multipolar world, where traditional Western hegemony is contested by rising Asian powers, the expansion of the BRICS, and shifting global alliances. The analysis reveals that Nigeria has substantial credentials, including its youthful demographic, enormous military capabilities, growing soft power projection, rapid technological expansion, particularly in fintech, and abundant natural resources, including oil, lithium, and sand. However, unlike traditional credentials of rising states that emphasise military and economic capabilities in existing international relations scholarship, this paper argues that strategic natural resource endowment and environmental governance constitute an additional pivotal credential of rising states, as the ability to harness these resources can translate into economic prosperity.  Nevertheless, these credentials remain under-optimised due to structural and institutional challenges, environmental security issues, corruption, and policy inconsistency, which undermine Nigeria’s capacity. The paper concludes that for Nigeria to realistically join the league of rising states, transformational leadership must be embraced, accompanied by domestic reforms in governance, security, and economic diversification beyond oil. Until such conversion is pragmatically embraced, the crippled giant is unlikely to walk again on the global stage, and as a result, Nigeria’s potentials will remain unrealised.