The Trajectory of Nigeria's Structured Underdevelopment: Perspectives from Development Administration

Nigeria got her independence from Britain in 1960. However, hopes that independence would drive patriotic leadership in developing the country have not yielded the expected results. Hence, Nigeria is classified among developing and poverty-stricken countries, despite earning millions of dollars yearly from crude oil sales. This paper traced the root causes of Nigeria's structured underdevelopment to the nature of the emergence of the Nigerian state through the forceful amalgamation of 1914, long military misrule, skewed Constitutional favoritism, and an unpatriotic ruling elite. The method used in gathering data for the research is a qualitative survey. Human capital theory was used in the analysis. Notable development administration efforts made by various regimes in power to develop the country were reviewed, explanations were offered on why the efforts failed, and why future efforts to develop Nigeria without rejigging the polity will also likely continue to fail. The study recommended the adoption of the principles of federalism which are currently lacking in Nigeria such as proper devolution of power; resource control by state, state/regional policing, economic and polit