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Nigeria: Model of African Reform
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17856 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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3 / 1990 |
2,084 Words |
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Michael Johns
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As the people of Eastern Europe and the Baltic republics struggle to bury the socialist, totalitarian disease that has plagued them since World War II, African autocrats continue leading their nations down a postcolonial authoritarian slide, oblivious to the widely acknowledged failure of socialism and totalitarianism. The result for Africa is continent-wide disaster.
Most African nations possess minerals and other natural resources that should serve as an impetus to sustained economic growth. But statist economic policies, combined with government corruption and occasional outright malevolence, have destroyed African economics.
Africa's most populous nation, Nigeria, has experienced many of the postcolonial hardships that have afflicted the African continent, such as ethnic motivated civil war and successive authoritarian military governments. But Nigeria is now trying desperately to become the exception to Africa's typical style of governance, and the country may just pull it off.
Under the leadership of Nigerian President Ibrahim Babangida, steps are being taken to make Nigeria one of Africa's few democracies with a free-market economy. Babangida promises two-party presidential elections in 1992 and a return to democratic rule. The Nigerian leader also has initiated an economic reform program that recognizes the role of economic incentive as a catalyst for growth. Last year, while neighboring West African economies shrunk, the Nigerian gross domestic product grew 4.1 percent.
Were Nigeria just any country in Africa, these reforms -and the positive ramifications they are likely to have - would be important enough because they would serve as an example for the rest of the continent. But Nigeria is not just any African country. As the continent's most populous nation (its population is estimated at 114 million) and one of Africa's few nations with significant export potential, Nigeria is arguably the heart of black Africa. Should Babangida succeed in making Nigeria a free-market democracy, it could ignite a continent-wide movement - perhaps even a revolution - toward political and economic freedom.
Since independence in 1960, Nigeria's economic and political path has been turbulent. The country has suffered six military coups, the assassination of three heads of state, and one costly civil war. The majority of Nigeria's postcolonial period has been dominated by authoritarianism and poverty. The World Bank lists Nigeria as one of 42 countries in the world with "low income economies." But the past several years have seen dramatic changes most of which were necessary to prevent Nigeria from descending further into a statist economic quagmire.
For years, the success or failure of the Nigerian economy was tightly linked to world oil prices. Nigeria is the fifth-largest supplier of crude oil to the United States and one of the world's leading crude oil exporters. The oil boom of the 1970 enabled Nigeria to ride a high economic wave. The country's gross domestic product climbed an average of 7.5 percent between 1970 and 1979, an unusually high rate of growth for an African nation.
When world oil revenues began to descend in 1982, however, Nigeria paid a price. Because oil accounted for 95 percent of Nigeria's export revenues, foreign
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