ASPECTS OF NIGERIA’S POLITICAL ECONOMY FROM IMPERIALISM TO INDEPENDENCE

Abstract

Majority of the African countries were dominated by the global north. However, this paper discusses aspects of Nigeria’s political economy from imperialism to independence. Nigeria’s political economy was basically bases on the traditional system that is an agrarian society before the coming to the European who came to introduce what they called ‘civilization’ capitalised on this booming sector of the nation and exploited it. The imperialist invaded the territory through missionary movement and later on full colonialism this act of the imperialist has never gone done well the Nigerian political economy as the sector began to faced various challenges during and after their participation. However, the objectives of this paper are to discuss the various aspects of the Nigeria’s political economy, the nature of this political economy between imperialism and independence and ascertain its impact on the development of Nigeria. The paper adopted a descriptive research methodology to discuss the above objectives. Findings of the research has revealed that in spite the growth in over dependency on the agricultural export during this period the sector has decline to the extent that it has not be able to serve as an engine of growth for the nation. Also, the internal structure of the agricultural sector has become more fragile when compared to other developed and developing countries.