60 YEARS OF NIGERIA’S UNDERDEVELOPMENT: BAKING THE NATIONAL CAKE IN RETROSPECT.

ABSTRACT

The paper seeks to examine the various theories of underdevelopment relevant to understanding the challenges of National wealth and its distribution patterns as it affects Nigeria’s socio-political economy since independence in 1960. This paper identified leadership problem as one of the major factors responsible for the aged-long underdevelopment status of Nigeria in the face of abundant resources. The main objective of this paper is to identify obstacles of development and to recommend ways and further steps that will take Nigeria to its launching pads of development. The paper anchored its theoretical framework on dependency theory with its explanation of the economic development of a state in terms of external influences through political, economic and socio-cultural implication on national development policies. This paper relied on documentary evidence and library research which form the basis of content analysis as its methodology of data collection. The paper provided further discussions on salient issues of factors impinging on development efforts as well as reasons why the various national development plans in Nigeria failed to succeed. The paper’s main recommendation is that the government of Nigeria should phase-out her aged-long mono-cultural economy through the diversification of all sectors of the economy and to improve equitable distribution of the Nation’s resources to all and sundry.

Keywords: Underdevelopment, National Cake, Growth, Development, Nigeria