In the new scramble for Africa, the big powers do not get to make the rules. With its energy reserves coveted by the US and Europe, Russia and India, Korea and China, Nigeria expects the rest of the world to treat it with a little more respect. “We have woken up from sleep, we are big boys, we know what we want,” says Ojo Maduekwe, Nigeria’s foreign minister, in an interview with the FT. “Standards that are not acceptable in your own countries, in Britain, or Holland or America, will not be acceptable here.”

As the leaders of industrial civilisation begin to wonder where they will find the oil and gas to power growth in future decades, Nigeria – which has plenty of both – believes it can demand more of its partners.