AN OVERVIEW OF NIGERIA’S POLITICAL ECONOMY

The essence of this overview is to look at Nigeria’s political economy as part of the background to structural adjustment in Nigeria. Some scholars have worked on various aspects of Nigerian history, including pre-colonial formations, processes, colonial structures, indirect rule, post-independence politics, development policies, state capitalism, welfarism, centralized planning, economic and political crises, and others. Such scholars include Osaghae, Eke, Ekekwe, Crowder, Gavin, Anene, Brown, Dudley, Goldsworthy, Tibenderana, to mention a few.

The character of Nigerian politics after independence could be described as a long-drawn-out decay or decline, whose elements are political instability, a low level of national cohesion, and economic crisis.

It is on this ground that the bases of Nigerian politics can be understood. These bases are on the nature of society which relates to the value which govern public behavior, the character of the state which originated under colonial rule, the character of power which is manifested in power relations and competition for power, and the consequences of Nigeria’s location in the global system which has been primarily extractionists.

The nature of the Nigerian state could be traced to her reoriented contact with other parts of the world when the Atlantic slave trade along the coast of West Africa which grew in proportion to the economic demands of Europe and North America disrupted the long distance trade. From then, the economic changes and conditions in Europe were to shape the economic future and historical change in Africa.

Such changes in Europe facilitated European explorations in Africa which paved way for the eventual incorporation of Africa generally and Nigeria in particular into the European capitalisms.

The organic interdependence in the various pre-colonial political entities which were agglomerated into one political unit was disrupted. The colonialists decided what crops were needed in the European industries and if they were already produced in Nigeria, they encouraged increased production. For instance, consequent upon the development of soap industry in Britain which required palmoil, palm kernel oil, etc, the production of palm oil which was considered one of the best of such oils was accelerated in southern Nigeria.

There was no attempt to design industries or activities relevant to the needs and taste patterns of the local population. Resultantly, whatever technical skills were brought to colonial Nigeria were transferred in isolation from the original technology of the pre-colonial societies30. In this situation, the pre-colonial

social relations and symbols could not support it. To make the colonial system work, therefore, the commanding heights of the Nigerian economy were dominated by foreign ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange, foreign production relations which unjustly exploited the labour of the rest-majority of Nigerians, foreign work roles, and skewed distribution of the surplus from production in the direction of Britain and other advanced capitalist

societies31. The formal colonial state which came to being on 1st January, 1900 became the servant of imperialism fostered by the metropolitan interest, including the mercantile and industrial factions of the British bourgeoisie for whom the conditions created and maintained by the colonial state were great opportunities for trading in commodities. This scenarios underscored the reason for the serious attention of colonial state on stability and order and the pursuit of policies which served more the interest of foreign companies than on the primary interests of the Africans. The overall purpose of the colonial enterprise, therefore, was one of exploitation and development for the people of Britain.

The establishment of British economic, political and cultural interests precipitated the class formation that became prominent after the independence. The modern Nigerian state is, therefore, characterized by over polarization of social life, We are intoxicated with politics. The premium on political power is so high that we are prone to take the most extreme measures to win and maintain political power. The above disposition of the Nigerian state greatly influenced a number of post independence policies. For instance, the establishment of parastatals was rooted in Nigeria’s colonial heritage for the provision of electricity, agricultural products, and others. The parastatals were conditioned to produce and serve along the interest lines of the developed nations. In a situation where production was not encouraged, importation was greatly encouraged. A good example of this was the import substitution policy.

The IMPORT SUBSTITUTION POLICY was premised on the high import intensity in which Nigeria became increasingly dependent on the importation of equipment, raw materials and spare parts without which the manufacturing industries in Nigeria would stop production This position was opposed to the situation before this substitution in which Nigeria was mainly dependent on manufactured items.

The situation in the manufacturing sector, therefore, became that of importation rather than production. The consequence of this was that some of the companies closed down and some were working at less than full capacity. The above is a scenario of policy failure in the Nigerian state after independence. As Nigerian economic crisis will further be discussed, the overview of Nigeria’s political economy already undertaken is meant to give a background understanding to the further economic crisis that ensued in Nigeria and the eventual introduction of the structural adjustment.