The Structure of Post- Colonial Nigerian Economy, 1960-1975.

This research studies the structural changes in the post-colonial Nigerian economy from 1960-1975. It follows the transformation of the agro-based regional economy inherited from the colonial administration to the oil-anchored national economy subsequently promoted by the state. This article critically assesses the execution and the successes as well as the limitations of the First National Development Plan (1962-1968) and the Second National Development Plan (1970-1974/75). The heavy reliance on foreign capital, the baffling exclusion of the Nigerian elites from the Plan and then the Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970) hindered the implementation of the First Plan. The First Plan primarily focused on infrastructure, education and light import-substitution industries. After the civil war, the Second Plan built on an expanding potpourri of postwar resources, led by oil revenues, to spearhead post-war reconstruction, state-led industrialization, infrastructure growth, and national self-reliance under the rubric of the Nigerian Enterprises Promotion (Indigenization) Decree of 1972. The paper illustrates how the unprecedented growth of crude oil as the chief source of national income and foreign exchange generated “Dutch disease” tendencies. This structural transformation resulted in the relative abandonment of agriculture, an increasing reliance on food imports, extreme urban-rural disparities and an import-oriented manufacturing sector sensitive to international shocks. Based on historical policy analysis, the study finds that the establishment of core institutional and physical infrastructure during the 1960–1975 era, such as hydroelectric power, port developments, health systems and multi-sectoral industrial complexes did not fully complete the structural transformation due to political instability, planning failures and monocultural dependency.

The First Plan primarily focused on infrastructure, education and light import-substitution industries.

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