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Dependency And Underdevelopment In Africa: The Nigerian Experience
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Chapter One:
General Introduction
1.1 Background of the Study
The concept of dependency and underdevelopment draws our attention to the stagnation, deplorable and peripheral condition of Africa, Asia, Latin America, in the international system. Africa, among other continents in the world, is seen as the poorest continent of the world. In the international system, the G8 (Group of eight) and other international organizations regard Africa states as “POOR†thereby seeing Africa as an incapable or handicapped continent.
The reason becomes why they give out loans to most African states in order to attain the international standard of development, thereby making Africa indebted to the European countries. It is also for the same reason most international organization are established, towards the development of Africa states. Development of most
African states here implies meeting up with the European standard. Taking a look at Africa, it is seen that the problem of underdevelopment in Africa, centers on their inability to transform their raw materials to finished products, as well as their inability to properly manage and harness their products management and good leadership. The African continent is presently facing a unique and unprecedented crisis or problems in its history as a human society. These problems also transcends previous calculations of socio-economic background, balance of payment deficit, poor health statistics, material poverty indebtedness, poor education, disorganizing ethnic welfare, rapid capital flight, alleged law capacity utilization of materials and other human resources and so on. The above listed problems are what makes Africa dependent and underdeveloped, as a result of its incapability to overcome these problems or tackle them successfully. This study attempts to explore the
dimensions of dependency and underdevelopment and access the impact of Africa using Nigeria as a reference point.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
In this analysis, we shall explore into the most of the problems Africa, and Nigeria, in particular is faced with and as the analysis goes further, we shall understand the reason for this underdevelopment, and try to sort out possible solutions to go into that, it is paramount to point out factors necessitating the phenomenon of underdevelopment and dependency in Africa, such as;
i. The reckless and excess lust for foreign loan and aid: This has to do with a financial assistance granted to third world country in order to boost their economy and project them capable for international trade.
ii. The domination of import over export trade: This is one of the major problems in Africa, or third world countries economy, since they tend to patronize more of the foreign goods over indigenous goods thereby bringing the implication of exploitation from the foreigners at the detriment of indigenous traders.
iii. Political Crisis and Corruption: Africa is conversant with the above, since it is married with different kind of political crisis ranging from military coups to party crisis and worst of all which is corruption since it is the end products of any political unstable nation.
iv. The failure of policies made by the government: Since policies made cannot be strictly adhered to them the problems in which that policy was made for has not yet been satisfied or settled, and in most cases these
policies made are irrelevant to the countries or nations development agenda.
v. Lastly but not the least poor education: Here the level of education which is the key to every kind of success is too low and a times poor, in third world countries the education, sector is dominated with all manner of malpractices which includes bribery, strikes, indefinite closure of school, due to illegality in its operations, unaccredited academic structures and all other shortcomings etc.
Against this backdrop, this study attempts to provide answers to the following questions,
i. Is there a link between dependency and underdevelopment in Africa?
ii. Is foreign aid responsible for Africa’s underdevelopment?
iii. Is accountability and transparent leadership capable of endangering sustainable development in Nigeria?
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The broad objective of this study is to interrogate the link between dependency and underdevelopment in Nigeria, especially the study is aimed at;
i. Establishing the link between dependency and underdevelopment in Africa
ii. Ascertaining that foreign aid is responsible for underdevelopment in Africa
iii. Determining if accountability and transparent leadership are capable of engendering development in Nigeria.
1.4 Literature Review
The term underdevelopment is used in the social sciences to refer to certain areas of the world; it gained prominence in the late 1940’s. Prior to this time, other derogatory terms has been used to quality and describe these areas as meier has noted, in the 18th century, such terms as “rude†and barbarous were used to describe countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. In the 19th century, those terms were dropped in favour of new terms such as “backward†and primitiveâ€. In the 20th century, especially after the end of world war if the previous terms were equally abandoned in their places, new terms such as “underdevelopment†and “developing†were used.
At the inoment, it has been suggested in some quarters that such tenures as “less developedâ€, “developingâ€, “poorâ€, and emergent countries should used instead of underdeveloped countries. The reason for this
suggestion as spotlighted by Walter Rodney, “is to avoid any unpleasantness which may be attached to it†and which may be interpreted as including such physical deformities as mental and moral underdevelopment.
It is also been suggested that the previous derogatory terms should be dropped in favour of less offensive or mild ones such as “developing†or emergent. This is perceived as a calculated design or ploy by the west to mask or common flag economic stagnation and exploration exists in underdeveloped areas. It is contended for instance that the application of such terms as “developing†instead of underdeveloped gives an erroneous impression, that these countries are changing positively and thus are developing and that if the right policies are implemented, sooner or later these countries will definitely catch up with the developed countries of the world.
In view of this assumption, the Marxist Theorist prefer to use the term “underdevelopment†to describe the less developed parts of the world. The reason for this is that the term “underdevelopment†is believed to be best concept that can apply describe the state of stagnation and exploitation that is prevalent in these societies. We now shall examine the meaning of the concept of underdevelopment.
Underdevelopment the Liberal Perspective
The liberal scholars conceive of underdevelopment in terms of backwardness and primitivity. This explains why it is common for them to use the term “agrarian†and pre-industrial to in apply underdeveloped parts of the world. Implicit in this conception of underdevelopment is the fact that it is a natural or original condition, which has existed from fine immoral. In other words it is believed by the bourgeois scholars that
underdevelopment is not caused by an external factor but rather is induced by internal variable.
Pulating the above, it is the alternative explanation which is equally offered to support the view that underdevelopment is a natural process. In this view, it is stated that development and underdevelopment are natural process ordained by God. It is contended that the developed parts of the world have been endowed by God with wisdom and high intelligence quotient (IQ). This explains why they are superior and advanced. On the other hand, the same God is said to have created the underdeveloped societies differently. He makes them to be culturally and psychologically interior, which is said to be responsible for their state of backwardness.
It is important to state that even though the bourgeois scholars are agreed on the fact that natural and internal forces causes underdevelopment, there is no agreement with respect to which internal variable
actually bring it about. According to Ragna Nurke in his work “problems of capital accumulation in poor countries; a country is backward and poor because it is poor.
This represents a vicious circle of poverty that “runs from low income productivity and then back to real income.
In his own contribution, Richard Eastern line attributed underdevelopment to the eliminate, over population and lack of motivation on the part of the population.
Other scholars still blame the situation on radical grounds, peasants conservation, and strong attachments to tribal customs such as extended family and hand fame system.
In view of the fact bourgeois scholars attribute underdevelopment to internal factors, this has influenced how they defined it. According to them it can be defined
as a natural state of social, psychological, political land economic backwardness occasioned by natural and internal milieu. This definition leads the liberal scholars to postulate that the way out of this backwardness is through modernization. That is “Europeanization†or “Americanization†of the economy in order to stimulate growth and progress.
Underdevelopment: The Marxist Perspective
To the radical scholars, it is untrue that underdevelopment connotes backwardness, primituity or lack of underdevelopment. This is because every people have developed in one way or the other and to a greater or lesser extent.
Equally untrue is the assertion that it is a natural process to the radical man –made process and a manifestation of a long period of economic and political relationship between these countries and the advanced industrialized parts of the world.
Quite unlike the bourgeois scholars who claimed that capitalism played no part in the creation of underdevelopment but natural and internal factors; the radical scholars think differently. The thesis of dependency theorists is that underdevelopment is caused by capitalism which guarantees exploitation. This position has been supported not only empirically but logical and factual presentation of concrete evidence. For instance, while supporting the view that underdevelopment is caused by the interplay between internal structures; Gunder Frank asserted:
Underdevelopment is not simply non-development, but is a unique type of socio-economic structure brought about by the integration of society concerned into the sphere of the advanced capitalist countries.
It is the view of the radical scholars that it is the same process that fosters development in the industrialized parts of the world which fools development
and generates underdevelopment as third world countries. Put in another way, the integration of third world countries into the main stream of world capitalism has enhanced the rate of development in the third world. This position has been beautifully articulated by Osvaldo Sunkel when he observes;
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 4]
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]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 ob ... Continue reading---
