56 133. Nigeria has made huge investments of financial, human, material and military resources to promote Africa’s development, as well as peace and security on the continent. Nigeria was at the forefront of the continental struggle against apartheid in South Africa. It continues to play important roles in the AU and the UN in different mediatory capacities. 134. Nigeria has excelled in promoting the peaceful settlement of disputes regionally and continentally. As early as 1960, when it attained independence, Nigeria sent peacekeeping forces to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Nigeria was instrumental in containing conflicts through peaceful mediation and conciliation measures in Angola, Chad, the DRC, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. In 1990, Nigeria led a military mission to Liberia under the leadership of ECOWAS. Moreover, Nigeria participated in the activities of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in 1978. By 2007, Nigeria had sent about 2,000 troops to Darfur as part of the AU peacekeeping force. President Obasanjo was engaged in the mediation of the peace process in Darfur in his capacity as chairperson of the AU and as president of Nigeria. Nigeria hosted the peace talks between the leaders of the two warring rebel factions in Darfur. 135. With by far the largest army and military budget in Africa, Nigeria is a bellwether for governance and security in West Africa, and a diplomatic and peacekeeping presence throughout the continent. When civil wars broke out in Liberia and Sierra Leone, both in the West African subregion, Nigeria led and financed a regional force – the Economic Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) – to end the war and bring about peace in the subregion. As of 2007, 4,000 Nigerian soldiers were on peacekeeping operations outside the country. These peacekeeping activities have entailed enormous costs for the country’s Treasury. Nevertheless, it is a burden that Nigeria proudly shoulders on behalf of the rest of Africa. Thus, Nigeria has manifested strong concern for other African states, has demonstrated strong leadership and a willingness to make sacrifices, and has shown outstanding commitment to international peace and security. 136. Nigeria has negotiated and sold oil at concessionary prices to South Africa, Namibia, Ghana, Niger and other African countries. In West Africa, Nigeria spearheaded the integrating project of a regional gas pipeline whose benefit to the subregion’s economic development was likely to be monumental. Also worthy of mention is the country’s trust fund created with the AfDB as a soft lending window to Least Developing Countries (LDCs) in Africa. 137. Nigeria was one of the five founding member countries of NEPAD, with President Obasanjo serving as the first chairperson of the NEPAD Heads of State and Government Implementation Committee (HSGIC), the body that has steered the affairs of NEPAD from its earliest phase of establishment. Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, has played host to the inauguration of many NEPAD initiatives, including the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which put into motion the APRM.