Sovereignty, Non-Interference, and the Responsibility to Protect: Nigeria’s Evolving Normative Position in the African Union

This study empirically examines the evolution of Nigeria's normative position on the tension between state sovereignty, non-interference, and the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine within the African Union framework from 2005 to 2023. Nigeria's diplomatic positioning on R2P reflects both its own experience as a target of threatened external intervention during the Civil War and its aspirations to continental leadership that require engagement with humanitarian governance norms. A mixed-methods design is employed, combining systematic analysis of Nigeria's AU Peace and Security Council voting records and statements with qualitative analysis of 30 elite interviews with Nigerian diplomats, legal scholars, and human rights practitioners. Content and discourse analysis of official Nigerian foreign policy documents and UN General Assembly statements from 2005 to 2023 supplement the quantitative evidence. The Constructivist Theory of International Relations and the Sovereignty Theory of International Order provide the theoretical anchors. Findings reveal a nuanced and evolving Nigerian position: consistent opposition to R2P invocations that could justify external military intervention without African Union endorsement, combined with pragmatic support for African-led R2P implementations when authorised through AU mechanisms. The study contributes an original empirical mapping of Nigeria's R2P normative evolution and its implications for African Union institutional development. Keywords: Responsibility to Protect, sovereignty, Nigeria, African Union, non-interference.