Religion, Identity, and the Politics of Nigeria’s OIC Membership: A Constructivist Analysis

This dissertation provides a constructivist analysis of the politics of Nigeria's membership in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), examining how competing religious identity claims, national identity construction, and diplomatic calculations have produced a uniquely unstable and contested relationship between a secular multi-faith state and a faith-based international organisation. Nigeria's OIC membership, first announced in 1986 under General Ibrahim Babangida, has remained a source of domestic controversy and international curiosity, reflecting deep tensions in Nigeria's national identity as a Muslim-majority north, Christian-significant south federation. Drawing on constructivist international relations theory, religious diplomacy theory, and the sociology of identity politics, this study traces Nigeria's OIC engagement from 1986 to 2024, examining how successive administrations have managed the domestic political costs and diplomatic benefits of membership. Primary data are drawn from State House archives in Abuja covering the Babangida era, National Council of State minutes, archival research at OIC headquarters in Jeddah, and oral history interviews with former presidential advisors, religious leaders, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials. The dissertation's theoretical contribution lies in developing the concept of ambivalent multilateralism to describe the engagement pattern of states whose domestic identity contradictions make full institutional commitment impossible but whose strategic interests prevent withdrawal. Original analysis of how religious identity politics shapes multilateral institutional behaviour advances both constructivist theory and the religious diplomacy literature. Keywords: OIC, Nigeria, religious diplomacy, constructivism, national identity.