Suchergebnisse

The political rivalry between the Yoruba and Igbo ethnic nations revolved around their undisputed leaders-Obafemi Awolowo and Nnamdi Azikiwe. It began with the return from the Gold Coast of Nnamdi Azikiwe. His return engendered an Igbo educational awareness that soon challenged the Yoruba domination of the economic and political life of the country; leaving in its wake the carcass of the once vibrant Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM). The brief thaw manifested in the formation of the National Council of Nigeria and Cameroons (NCNC) evaporated with the death of Herbert Macaulay, the erstwhile president of the party in which Nnamdi Azikiwe was the general secretary, Nnamdi Azikiwe and the NCNC did not take kindly to the formation by Obafemi Awolowo and his colleagues of the Edge Omo Oduduwa and subsequently the Action Group (AG). If anything, the general elections of 1951/52 into the Central Legislature exacerbated the rivalry rendering impossible hopes of Coalition governments by the NCNC and AG after the federal elections of 1959 and 1964; and in the process allowed the Northern People's Congress (NPC) to dictate the direction, pace, and character of Nigeria's political development, a trend that not even the military interventions and the civil war were unable to alter. This paper attempts to deepen our understanding of this rivalry and concludes that & worked to the utter disadvantage of the two ethnic nations and the Nigerian nation-state.

African and Africanists scholars formed the intellectual wing of African nationalism; which triumphed in the attainment of political independence of the former colonial possessions in the 1960s. In the course of the nationalist struggle, it was held out that African underdevelopment was coursed by the unequal economic relations between the colonies and the metropolitan countries. Walter Rodney in a brilliant analysis of the low economic situation of the continent held out the prospects of rapid economic advancement of the continent once this colonial hegemony - which came at the heels of the abolition of the over four hundred years of the trans-Atlantic slave trade - was laid to rest. Other scholars pointed out paths to political Stability which, it is generally accepted, is a sine qua non of economic development. Regrettably, almost sixty years on, the African continent is still enmeshed in the backwaters of world economic progress. The Rodney thesis no longer suffices as an explanation of African economic underdevelopment. More so when juxtaposed with some Asian countries which gained political independence contemporaneously with African states. This paper attempts to answer the question of where and why did African political elite get It wrong? By so doing deepen our understanding of the African economic crisis and proffer ways of meeting the challenges so posed.

At her independence in 1960, Nigeria held out prospects of being one of the fasted economies of the world, and attainment of industrial status within a generation. This was because she seemingly had all that was needed to attain the objective: buoyant agriculture, an assertive entrepreneurial class, a burgeoning middle class, an adequate financial base, and a friendly external financial environment. So bright were her prospects that Malaysia came and got oil palm seedlings from her Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR). Yet over fifty years on, while her contemporaries have joined the league of advanced industrial economies, Nigeria is still trapped in the bad waters of the underdeveloped world, much to the embarrassment of her citizens. This paper argues that the cause of this tragic experience is leadership failure. Whose multiplier effects are bribery, corruption, treasury, looting, and the various shades of political instability. The aggregate effect of all these is a prostrate Nigerian state groaning under the weight of its political misfortune.