The Geopolitics of Transport Corridor Development in West Africa: Nigeria’s Strategic Role and National Interest

Transport corridor development in West Africa carries significant geopolitical dimensions, as corridors shape regional trade flows, influence political relationships, and generate competitive and cooperative dynamics among nations with divergent strategic interests. This study analyses the geopolitics of transport corridor development in West Africa with particular focus on Nigeria's strategic role and how national transport infrastructure decisions intersect with foreign policy and regional integration objectives. The research employs a geopolitical economy framework integrating critical geopolitics, economic geography, and regional integration theory to examine five major trans-West African corridors with Nigerian segments: the Trans-Saharan Highway, the Abidjan-Lagos-Cotonou corridor, the Calabar-Cameroon corridor, the Kano-Niger corridor, and the proposed ECOWAS Regional Transport Masterplan corridors. Data are drawn from 50 elite interviews with officials from Nigeria's Federal Ministry of Transportation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ECOWAS Transport Division, and counterpart officials in Ghana, Benin, Niger, and Cameroon, alongside documentary analysis of bilateral transport agreements, corridor financing deals, and strategic planning documents. Findings reveal that Nigeria's corridor development decisions are characterised by a tension between developmental nationalism, which prioritises domestic connectivity, and regional integrationist obligations under ECOWAS frameworks. China's infrastructure financing has significantly altered the corridor geopolitics of the sub-region by introducing a new class of bilateral transport agreements that bypass ECOWAS multilateral frameworks. The study makes original theoretical contributions through a West African Corridor Geopolitics typology and an analytical distinction between corridor logics of integration, extraction, and regional dominance. Keywords: transport corridor, geopolitics, West Africa, ECOWAS, regional integration.