Nigeria recognised SWAPO as the 'sole and authentic representative' of the Namibian people in 1976, two years before the UN General Assembly did the same. The SWAPO office on the Marina, Lagos (rented and staffed by the Ministry of External Affairs) was the movement's largest external office outside its Luanda military headquarters and London diplomatic mission.
Funding through the Southern African Relief Fund included scholarships for 80 SWAPO cadres at Nigerian universities (1977–89), the cost of SWAPO's permanent observer mission at the UN, and emergency medical airlifts after the 1978 Cassinga massacre. Nigerian diplomats co-drafted UN Security Council Resolution 435 (1978), the framework that eventually produced the 1989 UNTAG transition.
On 21 March 1990, Nigeria became one of the first three governments (with Angola and Zambia) to recognise the Republic of Namibia. President Sam Nujoma's first state visit was to Lagos in May 1990 — within ten weeks of independence — coinciding with Mandela's post-release Lagos visit. The Babangida administration provided Namibia with US$5 million in foundation budget support and 50 Technical Aid Corps volunteers. See Namibia relations.