NIGERIA’S BRICS PARTNERSHIP AND THE RECONFIGURATION OF ITS MIDDLE-POWER DIPLOMACY, 2025–2027

Abstract

The paper explores Nigeria's admission into the BRICS as a partner country in January 2025 and how this impacts its policy of reconfiguring middle-power diplomacy between 2025 and 2027. Given the prospective nature of 2027 at the time of writing, the empirical assessment is based on actual developments through August 2026, with 2027 viewed as a policy horizon instead of as actual evidence. The study employs qualitative documentary approach using official documents of BRICS nations, Nigeria's foreign policy documents, World Trade Organisation (WTO), and United Nations Comtrade statistics, multilateral reports and peer reviewed literature. The analysis is drawn from Middle Power Theory and the notion of strategic autonomy. The analysis is based on three propositions: BRICS partnership extends Nigeria's diplomacy platform and Global South brokerage capabilities; the economic value of BRICS hinges on transforming asymmetric trade relations into investment, technology and development finance; and BRICS engagement is not a replacement for Nigeria's multi-aligned diplomacy. The results reveal that Nigeria has access to BRICS summits, foreign-ministers’ meetings, and some deliberations due to its partner status, and also has comprehensive partnerships with the West. The evidence also shows a structural limitation of China: it accounted for 23.3 per cent of Nigeria's merchandise imports in 2024 but only 3.9 per cent of exports. The paper concludes that BRICS can enhance Nigeria's middle powers status only if diplomatic visibility is converted into coalitions around issues, productive investments, export diversification and institutional capacity.