Relationship dossier
Nigeria
United States
Relationship assessment
Substantial cooperation on security, health, and development, alongside periodic human-rights disagreements
Nigeria toward United States
+40The Nigerian government has cooperated with the United States on counterterrorism and related security matters. Nigeria also participated in negotiating and signing a U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation compact for power-sector development, reflecting concrete bilateral engagement.
United States toward Nigeria
+50The U.S. government has supported Nigerian public-health programs, including HIV/AIDS efforts, and partnered with Nigeria through a Millennium Challenge Corporation compact focused on the power sector. The United States has also provided security cooperation, while raising human-rights and religious-freedom concerns.
Overall relationship
+45The relationship combines sustained cooperation in security, health, and development with recurring U.S. concerns about human rights and religious freedom. Bilateral programs and government-to-government engagement underpin a broadly cooperative relationship, though implementation details and periodic policy disagreements qualify that partnership.
How to read these scores
Scores are rough judgments, not objective measurements or current verification. Directional scores describe government policy and conduct, not public opinion. The overall score is an independent estimate, never an average.
- −100
- Extreme sustained hostility
- −50
- Substantially adversarial
- 0
- Mixed or neutral, supported by knowledge
- +50
- Substantially cooperative
- +100
- Exceptionally close sustained partnership
“Not assessed” means there is no recorded score. Pair existence makes no claim about diplomatic recognition or established relations.
Relationship context
Overview
Nigeria and the United States maintain a substantial relationship involving security cooperation, public health, and economic development. The governments have cooperated on counterterrorism and signed a U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation compact focused on Nigeria’s power sector. U.S. health programs have also supported responses to HIV/AIDS and other public-health needs. Relations have included friction over human rights and religious-freedom concerns.
Areas of tension
- U.S. concerns about human-rights conditions in Nigeria have at times affected bilateral relations.
- U.S. scrutiny of religious-freedom conditions in Nigeria has created periodic friction.
Key developments
Nigeria and the United States signed a Millennium Challenge Corporation compact focused on improving Nigeria’s power sector.
The United States designated Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern under its religious-freedom policy, then removed the designation the following year.
Major uncertainties
- The current scope and implementation of bilateral security cooperation are unclear.
- The extent of implementation of the Nigeria power-sector compact is uncertain.