Nigeria–United States relations

Bilateral relations between the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the United States of America were formally inaugurated when Nigeria attained its independence from Britain in 1960. In the 21st century, they have entailed an important, if occasionally uneasy, alliance, following a more chequered diplomatic past. Nigeria has traditionally been among the United States's most important partners in Africa, and together the countries' populations account for more than half a billion people.

Although Nigeria entered its independence with a broadly, though informally, pro-Western and anti-Soviet orientation, its early relations with the United States were significantly strained by the U.S. government's official neutral stance during the Nigerian Civil War and its refusal to send weapons to the Nigerian military government led by Yakubu Gowon, the U.S. government authorizing sending humanitarian aid to Biafra during the Biafran airlift, and by Cold War dynamics elsewhere in Africa. Under the administration of American President Gerald Ford, tensions were piqued by the countries' support for opposing sides in the Angolan Civil War, and by the United States's ongoing cordiality with the apartheid government in South Africa, which remained a sticking point throughout the 1980s. Relations improved considerably in the mid-1970s, both because of the foreign policy initiatives of Jimmy Carter's administration and because of the increased importance of Nigerian oil for the United States in the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis. Carter's visit to Lagos in 1978 was the first ever state visit of a U.S. president to Sub-Saharan Africa.

In the 1980s, ongoing trade and investment links were accompanied by simmering diplomatic tensions over the Nigerian government's failure to curb cross-border crime and drug trafficking, and over increased reports of human rights abuses inside Nigeria. Although the United States had rarely objected to Nigerian military rule in the past, its tolerance expired under the regime of General Sani Abacha, who took power during a 1993 military coup d'état. For the next five years, Nigeria faced escalating sanctions and the near dissolution of diplomatic relations.