The Struggles of Post-Independence Nigeria: Missed Opportunities and a Continuing Crisis

Ucheoma Nwagbara

doi:10.5771/9781793633767

Summary

In The Struggles of Post-Independence Nigeria, Ucheoma Nwagbara argues that despite Nigeria’s oil wealth and arable agricultural land, Nigerians are not any better today than they were before independence. Nwagbara examines Nigeria’s struggles with corruption, reckless government spending, poverty, inequality, crime, and violent insurgency to show how successive Nigerian leadership has failed to utilize the country’s enormous natural and human resources to improve citizens’ lives, eradicate poverty, and deliver broadly shared prosperity, especially to the middle class and the poor. Through his analysis, Nwagbara demonstrates that the nationalist ideals of dedicated and accountable leadership behind the struggle for independence in Nigeria have been betrayed as the emergent post-colonial leadership cared only for personal survival and gain. Despite these failures, Nwagbara reveals that Nigeria may still have a chance to improve and recover if Nigerians unite and demand real change through political and social activism.

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Bibliographic data

Edition: 1/2022
Copyright Year: 2022
ISBN-Print: 978-1-7936-3375-0
ISBN-Online: 978-1-7936-3376-7
Publisher: Lexington, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 332
Product Type: Monograph

1. Contents No access
2. List of Tables No access
3. List of Tables No access
4. Foreword: Nigeria Gets Much-Needed Scrutiny by an Expert No access
5. Preface No access
6. List of Abbreviations No access
7. 1. Plan of the Book No access
  2. Notes No access
1. Theories No access
2. Nigeria at Independence No access
3. Political Economy of Underdevelopment in Nigeria and Africa No access
4. Economic Changes and Decline in Nigeria No access
5. Nigeria: Enter the Twenty-First Century No access
6. Nigeria’s Informal Economy Sector No access
7. Conclusion No access
8. Notes No access
1. Cost Disease Theory and Governance Expenditure in Nigeria No access
2. “The Nigerian Factor”: Thievery and the Stolen No access
3. Antecedent No access
4. Government Remains a Big Business No access
5. Jumbo Pay No access
6. Bloated Workforce No access
7. Statutory Corporations—Public Loss, Public Pain No access
8. Conclusion No access
1. Origins of Corruption in Nigeria No access
2. Corruption as Prebendal Behavior No access
3. Corruption and Underdevelopment in Nigeria No access
4. Corruption Unlimited No access
5. Institutionalized Corruption No access
6. Corruption and Impunity No access
7. The Curse of Oil No access
8. NNPC—The Honey Pot No access
9. Taming Corruption No access
10. What People Do with Corruption Money No access
11. What Must Be Done in Nigeria No access
12. Conclusion No access
13. Note No access
1. “Why Nothing Works” No access
2. A Look in the Mirror No access
3. Why Leadership Is a Big Problem in Nigeria No access
4. Reinventing Leadership No access
5. Conclusion No access
6. Notes No access
1. Writers’ Galore as Part of the Examples No access
1. Official Publications No access
Index No access Pages 319 - 330
About the Author No access Pages 331 - 332