The Development of Modern Nigeria

THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN NIGERIA

Nigeria is, in many ways, a unique country within the context of political development. The country emerged from colonial status in the postWorld War II era with a greater reservoir of administrative and political expertise than was to be found in most of the other newly emerging independent countries. Yet, within seven years of independence, the country was plunged into civil war, which was followed by a series of military governments, assassinations, and changes in governmental form (Paxton 930-932). Following twelve years of turmoil, a freely elected civilian government returned to power in 1979. Internal political instability, however, has continued to plague the country.

In the midst of the political turmoil, development of the country's petroleum resources established Nigeria as a world leader in crude oil production and export. The stateowned Nigerian National Oil Company was formed to manage petroleum resource development. Although the company is semiautonomous, it operate

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to be the best (Hawkins 73-76). A major reason for this situation appears to be that political instability in the country led to policy decisions in the area of economic and other spheres which, while they may have appeared to be expedient in the shortterm, did not serve well the country's longterm development needs (Ikporukpo 127-139). PROBLEMS RELATED, IN SOME DEGREE, TO DEVELOPMENT OF NIGERIA'S CRUDE OIL RESOURCE In part, the Biafran revolution, and the ensuing civil war in Nigeria was the result of ethnic problems. The Hausa and the Yoruba were determined to wrest effective control of the central government from the Ibo. In turn, the Ibo were determined to secede from Nigeria, and form their own independent state in the southeast part of the country. It might appear that the formation of a separate Ibo state was a rational solution to a part of Nigeria's ethnic problem. It was not, however, acceptable to either the Hausa or the Yoruba, and their motivations were not altruistic: the discovery of major crude petroleum reserves in the Eastern (Ibo) Region would soon transform that region from Nigeria's poorest to its richest (Herskovits 25). Thus, while ethnic friction led to political instabilit
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Approximate Word count = 1389
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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