Nigeria's Neocolonial character, foreign direct Investments and Industrialization in Nigeria, 1960-1985

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of the neocolonial character of Nigeria on the flows of foreign direct investment and its implications for Nigerian industrialization since 1960. The extents to which foreign direct investments (FDIs) are attracted or otherwise to any nation are largely determined by the administrative, socioeconomic, and political environments.  The study adopted a purely descriptive analytical survey of relevant literature. The study confirmed that; first, the Nigerian political economy is largely a discontinuous, disarticulate, astructural, rentier one  which is dependent on the global capitalist system for her persistence and reproduction; second, public policy output orientations were fundamentally the expression of the interest of western capitalist class as effectively represented by their comprador local or indigenous counterparts; and third, the nature of foreign investment are such that promote the interest of the western capitalist economy, fourth, the neocolonial policy orientation of the Nigerian state tended to produce  and reproduce a dependent political economy. Consequently, we recommend that: For a sustainable and favourable investment climate to insure, the following facts must be noted: (a) the economic and political sub-structures of the economy must be reformed in order to a more positive interdependent political economic system for Nigeria; (b) There must be congruency in the investment goals of foreign investors and the government or indigenous enterprises; (c) The ground rules and other rules of engagement must be made transparent, clear and unambiguous; etc