History of Nigerian economic policies
Olugbenga Jaiyesimi
Published 28 December 2021
Nigerian economic development has swung from adopting strong doses of statism to sprinkles of liberalism. On attainment of self-government from the early 1950s, all the regional governments of the day and the central government embarked on development plans to transform the economy. None of the governments went out of their way to empower indigenous businessmen in the private sector. Rather they set up parastatals like Western Nigeria Development Corporation, much unlike the private Chaebols promoted in South Korea. Though Nigeria claimed to operate a mixed economy there was a lot of socialism in the air that lingers to this very day.
This statist mentality intensified with the advent of oil and petrodollars leading to the creation of mega parastatals especially those created by the Federal Government. NNPC by asset was noted as a world giant sometime in the 1980s. Most states,…
