Dependency And Underdevelopment In Africa: The Nigerian Experience

Thesis Abstract

Dependency and underdevelopment in Africa is our main thrust which we try to relate the above to the Nigerian context. Dependency as we all know is a product of underdevelopment which is prevalent in Africa in general and Nigeria in particular. It is certain that Nigeria is an independent nation, but it does not reflect in all the facts in the society since the super structures that form the society and state are dependent on foreign policy and factors. As we can see in this research work, we observe how the African state started its journey to underdevelopment which came in disguised of development and missionary activities which currently left it in shambles and dependent on foreign influence, since we were colonized and gives independence, literally we are independent but practically we are dependent on foreign influence since they form most of our policy and decisions as seen in some of our super structures like political which we adopted their style of government, economic which capitalism has contributed in crippling our economic culture which has been influenced by foreigners and degraded our cultural value, social which brought about the current inferiority complex suffered by Africans whenever they come in contact with the white. Also more emphasis is also laid on the post colonial and pre colonial African economy as we see how the post-colonial African economy led to the current debt crisis incurred by Africa in general and Nigeria in particular and we also see how Nigeria has been subjected to unhealthing conditionalities in its quest for foreign aid which does not translate the reason for its request after it is been given rather public officers now use these foreign loan for their private use thereby putting Nigeria in a higher debt profile, and in order to mediate the debt problem an organization was set up called the international monetary fund (IMF) which is an agency of the United Nation which claims that its reason for existence is to aid the third world countries in advancing the structural adjustment programs (SAP) aimed at developing the African country to international standard, but in the real sense, it worsened the African economic problem by cursing Africa rather curning Africa from its economic slanbles.This research work is divided into five (5) chapters for proper understanding and clarification on the nature of Dependency and underdevelopment in Africa with particular reference to Nigeria. In chapter one (1) we look at the technicalities involved in writing a research work, and we look at the introduction of our main thrust of study or to pie which has to do with dependency and underdevelopment in Africa. Chapter two (2) we see how dependency and underdevelopment came about in Africa starting from theadvent of the colonial masters, prior motive and missions and their later motive which reflects the current economic conditions in Africa and Nigeria. This chapter also talks about the processes and stages African passed through ranging from slavery, colonialism and the existence of economic saboteurs who amplified the African resources for their own selfish reasons. Chapter three (3) talks about foreign aid as a tool used by the foreign policy or international organs to underdeveloped Africa as they make use of attractive donations to procure political and economic favours in the recipients country. This chapter also portrays the nature of the African economy as a dependent economy suffering from colonial impact, the conditions attached with foreign aid and how it fosters slavery or imperialism and the level of mismanagement and misapplication of funds by public office holders in Africa. In chapter four (4) we devise a strategy or couple of strategies for curbing dependencyand underdevelopment as we look at some of the strategies below; like the strategy of indigenization which states that indigenous enterprise should be promoted to foster independent economic development, the strategy of war against corruption, which is a tool for removing the stigma with highest infections in the Africa economy which is corruption and the strategy of neo liberalism and lastly but not the least in chapter (5) which some the whole research work up we see how we put all the stories in few sentences which is summary and we conclude based on the facts gotten and then we make recommendations on appropriate policies to be made.