The State, Development and Governance in Africa: The Nigerian Experience

Abstract

The paper discusses the role of the state in the crises of development and governance plaguing Africa. The data for the paper are obtained from secondary sources while the methods of analysis are historical, descriptive and analytical. The contention of the paper is that the state is a major obstacle to development and governance in Africa. The historical, socio-economic and political conditions underpinning the processes of state formation in Africa are core to the African predicament. Specifically, the prominence and profound impact of colonialism on the evolution, character, processes, institutions, economy, politics and leadership of the post colonial African state provide the theoretical groundwork for interrogating the development and governance failures in Africa. Drawing heavily from the Nigerian experience, the paper argues that the failure of the state and its managers to repudiate and alter fundamentally the inherited and reinforced socio-economic and political institutions, processes and policies of colonialism antithetical to development and governance is germane to explaining the monumental cases of corruption, insecurity, conflict, poverty, inequality, diseases and political instability ravaging Africa. The paper posits that politics is central to the crisis of the state in Africa, and as such suggests the turnaround in the political leadership fortunes of Africa among other political measures as critical to overturning the status quo and improving the wellbeing of Africans.