Nigeria
has so many problems that Hinders the economic development of their country they
include:
1 Political instability
2 Building a united nation
3 Corruption
4 Unemployment
5 Poverty
6 Illiteracy
7 Low standard of living
1. POLITICAL INSTABILITY: One of
the primary problems Nigeria faces today that hinders her economic
globalization or development is political instability. Nigeria since independence
has had about thirteen different leaders and the majority of her leaders have
been military officers. Nigeria broke its ties with Britain and accepted
presidential system of government which is modeled after the United States.
This system of government is proved to have worked in other countries. Still
Nigeria needed a steady government official in office. According to Almond
Gabriel he said after some time, rural citizens give up on participating in the
government process.10 Past leaders of the nation create an unstable
government through bribe and corruption which still exists till date. There
were several times power was taken over by the military from civilian through
implementation of coups and counter coups. During the military rule soldiers
and bureaucrats increase the power of the state. The take over of power from
civilian by military rule were all to end corruption still persist. In 1999,
take over of power by military was permanently put to hold and democracy was
ushered in to stay, but with all that had happen the people of Nigeria still
have problem of instability in their political system. Thus, Nigeria is still
on the move to have a stable government. And until its political system is stable,
its economy and other structures of the country can never improve. Indeed, this
will hinder Nigeria as being classified among the developed countries.
2. BUILDING A UNIFIED NATION: Nigeria though has gotten her independence but still
do not have unity. They found it difficult in building a unified nation as a
result of the existence of 250 ethnic groups and some religions. This is also
applicable to some other African countries like Mali, Chad, Sudan etc. They
existence of the multiple ethnic group in a country in Africa is as a result of
an agreement reached by the European in Berlin conference. The colonial masters
- Europeans were interested in the vast of land of their colonial territory, as
a result of that they created what is today known as international borders.
Thus, this international border helped to identify the existing nations today
for example Nigeria. When these borders were established they did not take into
consideration the existing ethnic groups as well as religious groups that
exists in those areas. Many countries like Nigeria suffered and still suffer
today. There is division, instability, and struggle for leadership within these
countries. For instance, they have not been an agreement reached between the
Muslims in the North and Christians in the south in Nigeria. They both have
always fought about the control or leadership of the country. Nigeria can never
be successful when it suffers disintegration. Many attempts have been made by
the past leaders to unit the nation but to no avail. The only succeeding institution
is English language which is serving as a means of communication or as an
official language but has not solved the problem of nation building in Nigeria.
The problem of being united will make Nigeria even in the years to come to
remain not unified nation.11
3. CORRUPTION: corruption dishonest or illegal behaviours, embezzlement
of fund especially in the government offices and the government authorities.
This has eaten deep into the fabrics of the nations’ economy. The country is
corrupt, the economy is being misguided and mismanaged and there will be no
development as a result of that. Most leaders see their position as the
opportunity to take their own share of the national cake rather than to help
improve the country development. Wide spread of corruption is a symptom of a
poorly functioning state and a poorly functioning state can undermine economic
growth in order words, a corrupt economy must surely remain under developed
because corruption is anti- development.12
4. UNEMPLOYMENT: Another problem Nigeria economy faces is unemployment.
This result when there is no out lets to accommodate the number of people that
are willing and are able to do a given work at any given time. Under
circumstance the people remains idle unproductive and the economy destabilizes.
Unemployment leads to less out put production required to satisfy the needs and
wants of the people in a give country. Nigeria population is increasingly rapid
in number, thus the out put should increase as well. Rather it has been
estimate that history and agriculture combined will be able to absorb only half
of the projected increase in Labour force. Unemployment jeopardize the economy
of Nigeria .This is because the level of Net Domestic Product (NDP) of an
economy depends, by definition upon which the number of the workers and on the
product per head / worker. The distribution of workers among the various
sectors of an economy has hence an important bearing on product per worker and
therefore on NDP.13
5. POVERTY: Nigeria is richly endowed with natural resources but
at the same time most of its citizens wallow in abject poverty. Because of
poverty, it becomes difficult to make investment and cannot afford a constantly
up date their goods and technologies. Thus, this makes it difficult for these
countries to compete globally. The poverty level experienced in Nigeria economy
made it difficult for her factories and industries development. According to
the world development reports 1990, more than one billion people in the
developing world including Nigeria are living in poverty. The estimate is the
number of people who are struggling to survive on less than 370 dollars a year.14
Because of poverty, Nigeria is no
where industrially and technologically compared to other industrialized or
developed world. Nigerians limitation in industrial development makes it
difficult for her to solve the problem of food scarcity. This is because when
there are no industry producing food stuffs or items there is bound to be food
crisis. In fact, Nigeria and its citizens are experiencing poverty on all level
or standard.
6. ILLITERACY: illiteracy is
another problem that hinders economic development of a nation. For example, in
Nigeria, southern region are made up of educated people than in the Northern
region. This is because the South is compelled to open up to western influence
than the north. However, in Nigeria the population census conducted in Nigeria
ever since its independent shows that northern part of Nigeria is more
populated than the south, that is why it’s noticed that the population not educated
are much; because many today especially in the north are against western education.
They see it as waste of time, money and imperialistic in nature. However, the
illiteracy level in Nigeria made it difficult for some part of the country to adapt
to this new age information technology. Today in Nigeria many do not know how
to operate computer, browse, or access some other technology that are now
invented. This however, makes it difficult for the improvement of ones standard
of living because the global market is best accessible through information
technology. And since it’s few that knows how and when to operate these
invented technologies it makes it difficult for the nation’s economy to develop.