POLITICAL ECONOMY OF POST COLONIAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PLANNING IN NIGERIA TO 2022/23: SYMPTOMATICS AND THE REAL PROBLEMATIC ANALYSIS

Abstract

This study reviewed the fairly large literature on Nigeria’s development planning, postindependence, to 2022/23 beyond their groupings and conventional cum ‘new’ developmentparadigms with a view to locating the real problematic of the dismal development outcomestranscending the numerous plans and governments over the years while separating theproblematic from the symptomatic. Using the analytical method of political economy, the studysought to find the most strategic causative factor of planning failures the remedy of which willprogressively eliminate the symptoms usually confused for the causes. It was found that themost important strategic institution needed for good governance to deliver sustainabledevelopment is the constitution; made, enacted and given to themselves by the people especiallyin a diverse and heterogeneous polity like Nigeria as had been espoused in the ‘grundnormlegitimacy’ hypothesis suggested by the author. Consequently, the first order condition forsustainable development is the institution of an autochthonous and legitimate constitution, nota unitary Decree masquerading as the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (CFRN)1999 as amended, and it is high time positive economists started taking normative prescriptionsseriously and inter disciplinarily assist to establish positive ‘non economic’ foundations foreconomics positivism to thrive and power the delivery of sustainable development to thepeople.