The Environment, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Developmental State: Confronting the 21<sup>th</sup> Century Development Challenges in Nigeria

Abstract

The persistence of poverty in Nigeria and the deepening failure of development initiatives have reopened the search for viable development strategies. This is due to the inability of the pro-market changes (SAP) under the Washington consent to take Nigeria out of its economic strangulations and fundamental structural defects. Indices of poverty, inequality, unemployment and environmental degradation have continued to grow worse. Available literature blames it on low technology, poor data system, sequential healthcare worker’s industrial actions and Bokoharam insurgency and kidnapping in the south. However, the successes of the developmental states of North East Asia in the achievement of the sustainable development goals has renewed interest in policy circles and academic discourse in replicating the idea of the developmental state in Nigeria. It is based on the above premise that the researcher intends to investigate the place of the state as a key institutional factor in the development process. To achieve this, the study employed the developmental state theoretical model as a tool of analysis with keen interest on state institutions. The approach considers the state as the basic actor in economic growth and development. The study was conducted through a documentary research design. It’s purely qualitative. Data was gathered through secondary source while comparative and institutional analysis was used to analyze data. The work showed the impact of state autonomy and its capacity on market growth, stabilization, economic growth and development. This in turn impacts on poverty, wealth creation and environmental conservation/protection especially from the very poorest, who are left with no choice but to destroy the environment. It recommends that the Nigerian state should champion her development policy designs and execution, create a strong, autonomous, small, less expensive, trained and competent state bureaucracy on the basis of merit, build a strong consensus relationship between the state and the market to accelerate economic development and purposeful politics through an effective state capacity and capability expansion. These are recommended as most likely means for the birth of a developmental state. Thus, confronting the 21^th century development challenges and by extension achieving the sustainable development goals in Nigeria.