summary guide to understanding the problem with economic reform in Nigeria

ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT

Nigeria is a federation made up of 36 states, with over 250 ethnic groups which resulted to her citizens not acquainted to a common mother language, divided along ethnic and tribal lines; Nigeria is also the most populated nation in the continent of Africa.

Nigeria’s economic woes can be traced to the colonial era, which saw the sudden merge of the three major regions during the amalgamation of 1914, before then each region subsequently practiced regional economic development agendas, which lead to some region having a more advanced industrial frame work over some others and a better formidable economic structure suitable for rapid development. Education played a vital role to the sovereignty of the state of Nigeria. Those who were charged with Nigeria’s future soon saw themselves struggle for political power which resulted in political instability across the nation and resulted to the submerge of some region, politically, economically and structurally, adding to the economic woes of the country while some regions benefited from this, others suffered, but what was apparent was that as a federation, these issues affected the prosperity of the nation.

This book highlights the crucial lapses in administrative think tanks as part of the problem, coupled with the problems associated with the economic politics that existed prior to the merge of the three major regions in Nigeria, the failure to identify national interest and anticipate contingencies for the future of the nation continues to be a problem as of today, as a result of such, region and tribe comes first from political actors who were trusted and charged with national building. I believe as a result of some of these issues, administrators in Nigeria are yet to see themselves as a component of a federation who is charged with national building, this failure of true patriotism has amounted to the formation of policies not favorable to the entire country (unpopular policies).

In submerging turns, the national awards which are meant to be accorded to national builders are accorded in a questionable manner, in most cases, it has not met the requirements for national builders, because some of these award winners hardly can boast of knowledge of the people of Nigeria, and often their innovations are centralised to regional development and achievements. National awards are mostly on self recognition as politics is apparent in its process, self recognition, authority heads in the nation, financial strength of a citizen are part of the current requirements to attain national awards today.

it becomes difficult to attribute Nigeria’s economic problems to corruption only because, if an ordinary citizen at some point in their life benefited from corruption either it be through education or in public office or in a business deal, on an administrative level the same logic applies to them like a cheater in an exam hall, so why blame only public administrators whereas it is general problem, because it was also a self sustaining mechanism. Due to this I moved away from the topics of corruption