Abstract EN:

The build-up of destructive weapons particularly in the African context by the racist regime of Pretoria whose nuclear ambition remained unchecked, and as well in their international context by the superpowers' accumulation of sophisticated nuclear arsenal in an area of detente, have created a spiral of questions in the minds of Nigerian political leaders whose prescriptions involve : the formulation of strategic objectives and choices to safeguard the territorial integrity and national sovereignty. Nigerian government's identification and analysis of the dangers of an eventual nuclear war and its subsequent after effects have prompted the actual president - General Ibrahim Babangida's famous question with regards to "how Nigeria could match her goals and interests in such an uncertain world dominated by the superpowers. . . And what would be her position in such a world. . . " however, the relative political stability in Nigeria constitutes an indispensable entity upon which the decision makers ought to define concretely national security options compatible to Nigeria and her sister countries interests in the region, thereby creating a "sine-quoi-non" for peace, economic development and regional security. Although nothing in the present study contradicts Nigeria’s political determination to go nuclear, the question is whether this could be interpreted as an end or a continuation of her global politics in the international scene. It follows that in spite of both financial and technological handicaps in an era of detente between the two superpowers, successive Nigerian governments have opted for the acquisition of nuclear weapons for the security of her 155 million people, the territorial integrity and national sovereignty in the year 2000.