Nigeria’s diplomatic history is littered with Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with several handshakes that generated headlines but delivered little or nothing in practice.
These documents are often ceremonial, non-binding and politically performative, yet are routinely presented to the public as concrete achievements.
In 2016, Nigeria signed an MoU with China Railway Construction Corporation for a proposed coastal rail line valued at over $11 billion the project never commenced.
In 2018, another MoU was signed with Siemens AG under the so-called Presidential Power Initiative, initially promising 7,000 MW within two years.
Six years later, Nigeria still struggles below 5,000 MW, with phases repeatedly revised and delayed.
Similarly, MoUs signed with Russia’s Rosatom between 2017 and 2019 for nuclear power plants remain entirely on paper, with no site preparation, financing closure or construction.
MoUs are not treaties, contracts or guarantees of execution.They require follow-up legislation, funding, institutional capacity and political will.
To cite unsigned outcomes as proof of governance success is misleading. Nigeria’s problem is not the absence of agreements, but the absence of implementation, a chronic governance failure that symbolism cannot cure.
•Aduwo is the Permanent Representative/President of United Centre for Convention on Democratic Integrity (CCDI) to the United Nations. CCDI is a non‑profit organisation registered in Nigeria and the United States, with Consultative Status of ECOSOC/United Nations.
