“Nigeria First.” I like it. In principle, I like it whenever a nation stands upright and declares its sovereignty without apology. There’s something admirable—almost primal—about a country asserting its right to exist on its own terms. After all, no nation is under any moral or economic obligation to subsidize another.
That’s the ideal, at least—until the shouting begins. Because what this kind of slogan too often translates to is not “we stand on our own,” but rather, “we stand on our own—provided the rest of you pay for it.” It’s nationalism with an invoice attached. The old imperial trick, dressed up in local colors.
If a nation truly turns inward, focuses on its own soil, its own people, and earns what it needs without extorting the rest of the world, fine. I’ll applaud that. But in my experience, that’s almost never what’s on the table. Usually, it’s just another round of moral theatrics to justify fresh demands for aid, debt relief, or some other cleverly disguised tribute.
Nigeria, bless it, is a complicated beast. Unlike Russia or Saudi Arabia, it’s a middling oil producer at best—too large to ignore, too weak to dominate. Which means its leverage over global affairs is, to put it gently, finite. The slogan may roar, but the market will whisper back. Let’s see how long the world indulges the performance before the bills come due.