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Dependency And Underdevelopment In Africa: The Nigerian Experience
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We postulate that development and underdevelopment are the two faces, of
the same universal process, and what its geographic expression is
translated into two great polarizations on the one hand one polaziration
of the world between industrial, advanced developed and metropolitan
countries and underdeveloped, backward, poor, peripheral and dependent
countries and on the other hand, polarization within countries in terms
of space, backward, primitive, marginal and activities.
Similar
views have been expressed by other eminent scholars of the Marxist
persuasion. The most forceful among them are Kay, Jaguaribe, Celso,
Rodney, Frank, Dos Santos, and Cotten. They have argued though with
different emphasis that the foreign penetration is the causes of
underdevelopment.
Arising from this premises, they contended that
underdevelopment is the state of backwardness, retardations and economic
distortion counsel by exploration and plunder of the economies of the
developing areas as the result of their integration into world
capitalism.
This perception of underdevelopment has constrained Rodney to assert that;
A
second and even more indispensable component of modern underdevelopment
is that it expresses a particular relationship of exploitation, namely;
exploitation of one country to another. All of the countries named
“underdeveloping is exploited by the other and underdevelopment with
which the world is now preoccupied is a product of capitalism.
From
our discussion so far on the concept of underdevelopment, we have seen
that the term has been used and defined differently by both the liberal
and radical scholars. The way these scholars defined it is apparently
influenced by what they think causes underdevelopment while the liberal
views on underdevelopment is that, it is an original and natural
situation, the Marxist scholars are of the view that it is an artificial
process caused by the exploitation of one country by another. Our
knowledge of underdevelopment should place us on a vintage pedestal to
understand the concept of the “third world†or “dependencyâ€.
The
concept of “dependency†coined by a Brazilian sociologist Fernando
Hennighe Caidoso, helps to link both and political analysis that is, it
links those who are beneficiaries of development with those who make
decisions. Dependency simply stated that crucial economic decisions are
made not by the countries that
are being “developed†but by
foreigners whose interests are carefully safeguarded foreigners use
their economic power to buy political power in the countries that they
penetrate. This could mean political pressures, the imperialist
monopolies or even military intervention. This collusion between aliara
economic and political power distorts both the economy and the policy of
the dependent countries. Out of this situation is the emergence of
political alliances between foreign bourgeois. The process is now
complete because first all the metropolis exploits the colonies, so does
the domestic colonial bourgeois class exploit the rest of the
population.
The term “dependency†is shrouded in the definitive
ambiguity. This explains why there are many definitions for the term. In
its earliest conception dependency, as noted by Ian Roxborough, was
defined as “the observers side of a theory of imperialism†implicit in
this formation is the notion that imperialism has two faces.
The
first represents the colonial powers, while the others represent the
“imperialized†or dependent countries in this sense, theories of
dependency were believed to have the potentials of explaining the social
and economic process which occurred in the “imperialized†or dependent
countries.
The above perception of dependency must have been
influenced by the postulation of V.I. Lenin on imperialism. As the first
scholar to have used the term “dependency†Lenin contended that
capitalism imperialism is a manifestation of the struggle among the
colonial powers for economic and political denomination, as well as
division the world. He observed that;
Not only are there to main
groups of countries, those owning colonies and the colonies themselves,
but also diverse forms of dependent countries which politically are
formally independent but infact enmeshed in the net of financial and
diplomatic dependency.
Lenin’s observation merely captures the
nature of dependency as a logical manifestation of imperialism. It does
not give adequate insight for an in-depth operationalization of the
concept; various definitions have been made as there are some scholars.
In
his contribution, P. O. Brien articulated the view that “dependent
countries are the one which lacks the capacity for autonomous growth and
they lack this because their structures are dependent ones.
This position seems to tally with Bill Warren, who contends that;
Dependency
represents the complex socio-economic relationship that bind the
advanced capitalist countries of the “center†(the United States of
America, Japan, Western Europe) and the Latin America countries of the
“periphery†such that the movements and structures of the former
decisively determine those of the latter in a fashion somehow
detrimental to the economic progress of the Latin American societies.
The
definition of dependency Dos Santos is the most incisive and concise.
It encapsulates the central ideas of most radical scholar in the area.
According to Dos Santos, dependency means;
A
situation in which the economy of certain countries is conditioned by
the development and expansion of another economy to which the former is
subjected. The relation of inter dependence between these and world
trade, assumes the form of dependence when some countries (the dominant
ones) can do this only as reflection of the expansion, which can have
either a positive or negative effect on their immediate development.
Dos Santos position was expanded by Osvaldo Sunkel as he maintained that;
Foreign
factors are seen not as external but as intrinsic to the system, with
manifold and some times hidden or subtle political, financial, economic,
technical and cultural effects inside the underdevelopment country.
Thus
this concept of “dependency†links the post – war evolution of
capitalism internationally to the discriminatory nature of the local
process of Development, as well know it. Access to the means and
benefits of development is selective rather than spreading them, the
process lends to ensure a self reinforcing accumulation of privilege for
special groups as well as the continued existence of a marginal class.
Ian
Rox Borough has reduced other usages of the term “Dependency†into two
basic approaches namely; Dependency as a relationship or as a
conditioning for factors which alters the internal functioning elements
of the dependent social formation. Regardless of how one sees
dependency, in essence, it implies a kind of parasitic relationship that
exists between the highly industrialized countries, and the less
developed ones in a manner that ensures the continuous advancement of
the former to the detriment of the latter. An example could bedrawn from
the Nigeria’s oil and gas sector, here we see how we take
out
variable time and money to export our natural resources to be refined in
the developed or industrialized countries; and after being refined in
these places, it is imported back to the home nation, were it is being
distributed and sold at a higher price, irrespective of the fact that
the old is naturally gotten from this country. As a result, we now pay
higher to get what naturally belongs to us, thereby depriving us the
privilege to enjoy our natural resources. Now it is noted we use our
natural resources to maximize the economy and suffer or rather pay
tighter to get what is ours.
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---
