Nigeria and Sahel States Drift Apart as Shared Security Threats Intensify

Along the fractured seams of West Africa, Nigeria and the Alliance of Sahel States find themselves politically estranged at the very moment their shared enemies grow stronger. What began as a post-colonial reorientation — three military-led governments pulling away from Nigeria-dominated regional institutions — has hardened into a security paradox: the more each side blames the other for instability, the more room armed groups find to move freely across borders that diplomacy no longer bridges. The December 2025 detention of Nigerian airmen in Burkina Faso and the July 2026 exchange of public