In the Trail of Nemesis: Colonial Investments and Leadership Deficit in Nigeria

Abstract

Capitalism and socialism are the two economic systems that dominate the contemporary world. The integration of Nigeria into global capitalism through British colonialism is the event which has had the most impact on shaping modern Nigeria. Since independence in 1960, issues that many development policies attempt to ameliorate in the country have their roots, partly, in
colonialism. Less obvious are the colonial legacies that have shaped the country’s post-colonial super-structure. This paper, therefore, seeks to critically examine the haunting effects of colonial investments on the perceived leadership deficit in Nigeria. The paper is historical and descriptive in nature, it relied on secondary data sourced from libraries while the Marxian political economy was employed as its theoretical framework. It was demonstrated that the history of capitalism in Nigeria is the story of imperialism/colonialism. During its existence, from 1900 - 1960, the colonial state implemented policies that were largely favourable to the colonizer. It denied the country the possibility of indigenous development; colonial investments did not encourage local industrialization or the emergence/growth of indigenous capitalists which produced a situation of inverted capitalist formation. At independence, what changed was the class in whose dominant interest the state worked; the Nigerian ruling class and foreign economic groups. Consequently, politics/access to state power became the one sure route to capital accumulation by the local dominant class. This has produced a very high level of corruption and fierce/parochial politics. The leadership deficit in Nigeria manifests mainly in the disconnect between the political leadership and the citizenry, institutional decay and the inability of the state to deliver basic services which portrays Nigeria as a “failed” or “weak” state. The paper concludes that there is an urgent need for a major structural overhaul of the economic system towards any meaningful development in the country.