Nigeria and the UN Mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo

This careful study by a Nigerian political scientist now teaching at the University of South Florida assesses Nigeria's motives, actions, gains and losses in contributing funds, diplomats, and soldiers to the U.N.'s Congo operation. In his view, Nigeria's course placed it squarely between Africa's "radicals" and "conservatives"-about where it is today. With interests often parallel to, but not dictated by, Western nations, Nigeria counted Congolese unity among the main plusses of the operation; on its other main objective-ending outside intervention in the continent-judgment must be much more ambiguous.