Anatomising the Problems of Nigeria: Is It Mainly Anchored on Weakness of State Institutions or Otherwise?

Abstract

The checkered history of Nigeria since her independence in 1960 is evidenced in the failures of successive governments to deliver requisite infrastructure that can lead to industrialization and a sustainable development with a strong economic base. This research work seeks to critically examine the assertion that the problem of Nigeria is mainly anchored on weakness of state institutions like the Police, the Armed Forces and the Civil Service. While agreeing that weak institution is a contributory factor to Nigeria’s unfortunate status as a failed state, the research exposes and reveals myriads of other factors that have contributed in no small measure to the Nigerian problems. Military incursion into governance; leading to the enthronement of ethnicity and mediocrity; religious intolerance; rigged electoral processes; a constitutional frame work that abhors competition and adopts a feeding bottle approach to the constituent state within the federation who monthly rush to Abuja to share oil revenue; the mono economic base and lack of diversification; obsolete laws; lack of trust amongst ethnic groups; marginalization of some sections of the country; low regard for lives and properties; corruption; cultural differences; the roguish and unholy marriage called amalgamation of 1914; the colonial objective of exploitation and prospection of our natural resources; fear of domination by the North; the transfer of the apparatus of power to an unprepared North at the time of independence etc, appears to establish that our problems transcend weak institutions of state and is but a mere contributory factor. The scope of this research is limited to exposing these other factors as well as the weak institutions, and answers the question in the negative. Even as this work suffer from dearth of empirical evidence and materials, the doctrinal approach implicated in the interrogation of other contributory factors to the Nigerian problems using primary, secondary and tertiary sources reached the conclusion that even if strong institutions are developed, failure of government in the Nigerian state may still result from these other factors, and recommends that to solve the Nigerian problems, we must look beyond weak institutions. Keywords: problems, amalgamation, corruption, ethnicity, laws, federation, development, war, population, INEC, census. DOI: 10.7176/JLPG/101-01 Publication date: September 30 th 2020