The politics of negotiation and agreement: a case study of Nigeria–UK negotiations and agreements on immigration returns and transfer of sentenced persons 2005–2014

This research project problematises the approach to negotiation between two countries that are tied by former colonial relations; it situates the negotiations by critiquing the seeming sterility of the prescriptive negotiation process as proposed in much of the literature. Such sterile assumptions about the process have a great influence on the outcome of negotiation between countries bound historically and marked by asymmetric relations – in this case, Nigeria and the UK. The discussion problematises assumptions of equality and universality in the negotiation literature and argues that these theories do not factor in the existing colonial legacy dynamics between Nigeria and the UK – hence the call for reflection offered by this study. It finds that legacies of colonialism (paternal expectations on the part of Nigerians, uneasily mixed with sentiments of independence and competence, meet with sometimes more and sometimes less implicit British hubris) compose a rich tapestry of relationships that has not yet come to terms with the colonial past. There is then a need for the literature concerning such negotiation to be mindful of problematic universalist and rationalist assumptions that maintain power structures to the detriment of formerly colonised countries. The project anchors itself in reflecting on the negotiations process between the two countries on migration and transfer of sentenced persons (prisoner transfer) arrangements and examines the interplay of how policy and practices of migration with policy and practices of imprisonment of non-citizens of African descent for (alleged) criminal activity. It sheds light on the discursive merger to raise questions about power dynamics. This is so because there seems to be an expectation on the part of the UK that unquestionably places an obligation on the Nigerian negotiators, illustrating the asymmetric relationship between the two countries. In this relationship, the former holds greater power but, ultimately, both Nigerian and UK delegates succeed in creating ...