summary guide to understanding the problem with economic reform in Nigeria

chapter 3

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CHAPTER THREE

POLITICAL IMPACT ON THE ECONOMY

Most Africa nations depend on the public sector for every basic amenity, this lead to the quest for political power and control of government machineries, but Nigeria at her initial stages, had issues of segregation in which education had a major role to play towards such divides and this lead to the formation of the political structure after the British left the country behind the scene and on the set, officially. Some regions were better equipped and literate enough to contribute to national growth but in doing so drew jealousy from the lesser educated privileged at that point, while some other parts of the country were blessed with a good climate condition that encourage good harvest and plenty to eat and sell in place using tradition to oppose western education.

Politically the nation was divided based on resource control and envy, as I earlier stated, the struggle for political power lead to the negligence of the agricultural sector to the point where innovation and research, and implementation of resolves were ignored. After the civil war in the 1970s, Nigeria’s political structure took a different dimension, some regions that held economic advantage were displaced and saw their economy crumble and were not in the position to determine their future economically and politically anymore. As a result of these political strategies, the quest for political supremacy became the next alternative survivalist idea and it was based on, who will wield economic power will control the political and administrative structure in Nigeria; due to this bizarre ideology deliberate economic war was waged amongst the various regions in the country. In a bid to prevent a repetition of the civil war, an agreement was formed by the regions who emerged victorious during the war, being majority in population and for control reasons prevented the then alleged agitators (region), as presumed from holding economic power ,this is evident to the foundations to the creation of the Nigerian constitution and its amendments, gradually strangled the less fortunate regions from the civil war, which lead to a big economic collapse in those affected regions, even denied lucrative foreign investors, as part of the nation, marginalized, thus the nation suffers overall even in collective presentation, Nigeria needed all of its human resource to emerge a stable economic power in Africa, needing individual contributions aimed at national development as a proffer, but subsequently these neutralized regions of Nigeria, affected by such constitutional and economic inequality based on civil war out come and resolve , lead to industries therein collapsing one after the other, even the nature of the civil war saw most good agricultural crops deliberately destroyed for good by invading forces it was alleged so then, part of economic sabotage to those occupied territories during the civil war on Nigeria. Tribalism came into play in political offices and national interest was suspended, economic politics became a witch hunting tool that left many able resourceful Nigerians unemployed to strategic government positions, based on regional ties, culture, identity then coupled with wrongly appointed personnel into those public offices for regional gains, supremacy of the grip on national power, further made the nation’s future more blurry.

The post war economic adjustments lead to the mass migration of most south east and south Nigerians up north Nigeria or south west subjected, by the outcome of the civil war of the 1970s, which they were almost crushed by a Nigerian army backed by the British government, her founders, those affected regions simply migrated to work in the better, more richer regions of the country, a more commercial destination in the country, possibly not in their region. Lagos (south west, former capital of Nigeria) became a destination for the Nigeria dream, a land of opportunity, accommodating the entrepreneurs and professionals from all parts of the country, while these resourceful citizens left their own regions in search of better live, the industries within their left behind regions collapsed, as a result of this political twists some parts of the country became breeding ground for poverty, political participation became the only source of income for the grassroots of Nigeria, who often would rely on campaign gifts for electoral votes.

The remodeling of the political class saw the Nigerian constitution altered at some point where it favored some regions from federal allocations and resource distribution and some regions further gained political edge in the national assembly with more local governments created and often bias population census incurring more revenue to those regions, whereas the minority regions suffered politically and economically, foreign investors were given place of interest to build their bases or businesses in the dominant regions or winners of the civil war, boasting their own economies with advantages as victors . Some of these issues still loom today’s political arena and economic dispositions for the various regions of Nigeria, some regions in Nigeria suffer based on their inability to secure political power to self develop abandoned industries and projects within their states, some of these affected regions were so disposed in power structure to the point they hardly had motor-able roads good enough to transport commercial goods or even farm products to ports for export or distribution, even with the discovery and abundance of natural resources of crude oil in some of the disposed regions( south east. South south Nigeria), economic condition remained appalling in those areas because of shift in the political structure of the federation of Nigeria. Normally such areas should be a center of attraction to foreign investors drawing factory chain industries around where these resources are found , for an industrial experience of sustenance ,but instead in order to prevent the south east and south from using their abundance in natural resources to build wealth and revisit another civil war, it was best to keep them under ropes as preferred by the colonial masters of Nigeria, only allowing the rope lose when the tamed behaves better, to achieve this often would deny them economic strength, equality all for the purpose of control and building a stronghold on the minority regions in order to promote cooperation, this leads to the failure to develop the nation for example, cases where gas and crude oil that should guarantee constant electricity needed for industries, a site that should be innovated on and resources properly used near the source, as an alternative to enrich other regions in majority and share spoils of the civil war victory the federal government ran pipe lines that cost several million if not billions of dollars from these minority regions of south east, south to the more empowered regions of Nigeria, as most in government or authority came from those regions, and in order to shorten the problems of negotiating, devaluing their power grip as a result of such measures those affected regions became abandoned contributing to the decline in economic prosperity of the nation, a poor choice for an emerging economy like Nigeria. Without social integration and true presence of federal character in infrastructural development and resource control, economic growth is indeed prospective agenda not yet within reach.........

,(Edited)