Ambassador Joseph Garba (Nigeria's PR to the UN) chaired the United Nations Special Committee Against Apartheid continuously from 1976 to 1994 — the longest single national chair of any UN body in the post-war era. Under his chairmanship the Committee organised the 1976, 1981 and 1986 UN sanctions conferences, the World Conference for Action Against Apartheid (Lagos 1977 — co-hosted with the OAU and attended by 112 governments), and the campaign that produced the 1986 Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act in the US Congress (over Reagan's veto).
Domestic measures included an unbroken trade embargo on South African goods (1960–94), denial of overflight rights to South African Airways, and the expulsion of South African nationals working in Nigeria after Sharpeville. The Ministry of External Affairs maintained ANC and SWAPO liaison offices in Lagos throughout the period and issued ANC members Nigerian travel documents for international conferences. The Southern African Relief Fund was the financial arm.
Nelson Mandela's first major foreign address after release was to a joint session of the Nigerian National Assembly on 10 May 1990; his 1999 ANC autobiography Long Walk to Freedom names Nigeria as 'the country most important to the African National Congress on the African continent.' See South Africa relations.