The Intersection of French Language Education and National Integration in Nigeria: A Socio-Political Analysis

National integration in a plural state such as Nigeria requires deliberate management of language policy, as decisions about which languages receive educational support encode political values about inclusion, mobility, and national identity. The relationship between French language education policy and national integration dynamics in Nigeria has not been examined through a sustained socio-political analytical framework. This study analyses the intersection of French language education and national integration in Nigeria across legislative, institutional, and community levels of the education system, drawing on political sociology, language planning theory, and critical education policy studies. A multi-level policy sociology design was employed, combining analysis of federal and state-level legislative and policy documents, interviews with 55 education policy actors at federal, state, and school levels across six geopolitical zones, and survey data from 1,200 secondary school students and their parents on French language attitudes and national identity orientations. Quantitative analysis used multilevel modelling to examine how school, state, and geopolitical zone contexts moderate individual attitude formation. Results reveal significant geopolitical zone variation in both French education investment and French language attitudes, with consistent patterns aligning French language advocacy with integration-oriented political positions in the South West and instrumentalist positions in the North West. Federal education policy discourse constructs French as an integration tool in formal documents while failing to allocate commensurate resources. Community-level analysis reveals that French language classes in border communities function as sites of genuine cross-national integration with practical outcomes for Niger Republic and Cameroon border populations. The study proposes a national integration-oriented French language policy reform package. Keywords: French language education, national integration, language policy, Nigeria, political sociology