THE IMPORTANCE OF AGRICULTURE TO THE PROCESS OF POLITICAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: A MODEL FOR NIGERIA 'AN ALTERNATE USE OF THE PETROL DOLLARS'

This dissertation will explore the importance of agriculture to the process of political economic development in Nigeria. To reach this goal successfully, the historic and present developmental pattern of Nigeria will need to be examined. Thus, this dissertation will show that despite the warning that "agriculture must continue to be a major focus of development activities in Nigeria and that the sector also has considerable untapped developmental potential," Nigeria seems to have neglected agriculture as the petrol dollars boom. But Nigerian oil is limited and Nigeria faces many problems at home such as inflation, unemployment, high food prices, the informal sector, and neglect of the agricultural sector, as her effort to develop continues.;This dissertation will be divided into four chapters. The first will deal with politics and economics in the First Republic and the subsequent fall of that republic. This will lead to the logical question which is: Can the present, Third Republic, survive or should one expect more periods of military rule. Another question pertains to oil. Since the Second Republic, Nigeria has become oil-rich with the success of OPEC. But indications are that the money is not well spent and that the agricultural sector has taken a back seat as a major revenue earner for the nation. The question will then be raised as to the fate of Nigeria when the oil revenue begins to dry up.;The second chapter will examine the need for Nigerians to reconceptualize development, if they are to avoid possible socioeconomic conflict. This section will stress the need to increase productive mass participation in the economy. To monitor this type of development a new indicator will be introduced. Most new indicators are criticized on the basis that they do not measure anything new because they correlate with existing ones. The new indicator will be correlated with major indicators using time series and cross-sectional analysis. In addition to the need for reconceptualization, some reasons for past mistakes in development will also be discussed and it will be argued that one of the problems is the lack of a coherent and clear definition of development, resulting in each person or nation having its own meaning and perspective, while others evaluate their performances from yet another perspective.;The third chapter will be built on the notion that Nigeria needs to increase productive mass participation in the economy. Therefore, given this assumption, Nigeria should realize that agriculture has the potential to play an important role in the process of economic development. This will lead into the examination of the importance of agriculture to the process of development.;To facilitate easy understanding of the period under consideration, the periods have been divided into three sub-categories. The first period is referred to as the First Republic, this refers to the period after independence from October 1960 to the first military coup in January 1966. The Second Republic will be the thirteen years of military rule from January 1966 to October 1, 1979.;Having established the importance of agriculture to development, the fourth chapter will deal with the analysis of the Nigerian economy with special attention to the agricultural sector. Given the need to reconceptualize economic goals in Nigeria and the potential of the agricultural sector, it will be argued that Nigerians cannot afford to push agriculture into the back of developmental orientation. Instead they should make agriculture one of the center pillars of economic developmental goals. It will be argued that direct government involvement in development and in agriculture is a pre-requisite to developing Nigeria.