Evidence of Subnational Government Sovereign Boundary Percolation in Nigeria

This study analyses data from 1999–2019, evidencing strategies utilised by Nigerian Subnational Governments (SNGs) for promoting, facilitating, and retaining inward Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). These strategies are unique for several reasons, including the fact that they highlight the evidence of paradiplomacy in Nigeria, a case study that is understudied in the paradiplomacy literature. These strategies also deviate from the conventional protocols for FDI mobilisation in Nigeria. Drawing on Duchacek's conceptualisation of these strategies as a percolation of sovereign boundaries, i.e., the idea that SNGs are permeating inter-sovereign 'sieves' ordinarily designed to restrict their forays into the international plane, this article conceptually maps and empirically assesses the varied expressions and prevalence of these strategies by Nigeria's SNGs. Although these strategies are yet to be constitutionally challenged by the central government, they reveal a growing porosity of Nigeria’s sovereign boundaries and, therefore, necessitate a critical reassessment of the extant intergovernmental frameworks that govern FDI mobilisation and foreign economic relations in Nigeria.