Chapter One: General Introduction

1.1 Background of the Study
The concept of dependency and underdevelopment
draws our attention to the stagnation, deplorable and
peripheral condition of Africa, Asia, Latin America, in the
international system. Africa, among other continents in
the world, is seen as the poorest continent of the world.
In the international system, the G8 (Group of eight) and
other international organizations regard Africa states as
“POOR” thereby seeing Africa as an incapable or
handicapped continent.
The reason becomes why they give out loans to most
African states in order to attain the international
standard of development, thereby making Africa indebted
to the European countries. It is also for the same reason
most international organization are established, towards
the development of Africa states. Development of most
African states here implies meeting up with the European
standard. Taking a look at Africa, it is seen that the
problem of underdevelopment in Africa, centers on their
inability to transform their raw materials to finished
products, as well as their inability to properly manage
and harness their products management and good
leadership. The African continent is presently facing a
unique and unprecedented crisis or problems in its
history as a human society. These problems also
transcends previous calculations of socio-economic
background, balance of payment deficit, poor health
statistics, material poverty indebtedness, poor education,
disorganizing ethnic welfare, rapid capital flight, alleged
law capacity utilization of materials and other human
resources and so on. The above listed problems are what
makes Africa dependent and underdeveloped, as a result
of its incapability to overcome these problems or tackle
them successfully. This study attempts to explore the
dimensions of dependency and underdevelopment and
access the impact of Africa using Nigeria as a reference
point.

1.2 Statement of the Problem
In this analysis, we shall explore into the most of
the problems Africa, and Nigeria, in particular is faced
with and as the analysis goes further, we shall
understand the reason for this underdevelopment, and
try to sort out possible solutions to go into that, it is
paramount to point out factors necessitating the
phenomenon of underdevelopment and dependency in
Africa, such as;
i. The reckless and excess lust for foreign loan
and aid: This has to do with a financial
assistance granted to third world country in
order to boost their economy and project them
capable for international trade.
ii. The domination of import over export trade:
This is one of the major problems in Africa, or
third world countries economy, since they tend to
patronize more of the foreign goods over
indigenous goods thereby bringing the
implication of exploitation from the foreigners at
the detriment of indigenous traders.
iii. Political Crisis and Corruption: Africa is
conversant with the above, since it is married
with different kind of political crisis ranging from
military coups to party crisis and worst of all
which is corruption since it is the end products of
any political unstable nation.
iv. The failure of policies made by the
government: Since policies made cannot be
strictly adhered to them the problems in which
that policy was made for has not yet been
satisfied or settled, and in most cases these
policies made are irrelevant to the countries or
nations development agenda.
v. Lastly but not the least poor education: Here
the level of education which is the key to every
kind of success is too low and a times poor, in
third world countries the education, sector is
dominated with all manner of malpractices which
includes bribery, strikes, indefinite closure of
school, due to illegality in its operations,
unaccredited academic structures and all other
shortcomings etc.
Against this backdrop, this study attempts to
provide answers to the following questions,
i. Is there a link between dependency and
underdevelopment in Africa?
ii. Is foreign aid responsible for Africa’s
underdevelopment?
iii. Is accountability and transparent leadership
capable of endangering sustainable development
in Nigeria?

1.3 Objectives of the Study
The broad objective of this study is to interrogate
the link between dependency and underdevelopment in
Nigeria, especially the study is aimed at;
i. Establishing the link between dependency and
underdevelopment in Africa
ii. Ascertaining that foreign aid is responsible for
underdevelopment in Africa
iii. Determining if accountability and transparent
leadership are capable of engendering
development in Nigeria.

1.4 Literature Review
The term underdevelopment is used in the social
sciences to refer to certain areas of the world; it gained
prominence in the late 1940’s. Prior to this time, other
derogatory terms has been used to quality and describe
these areas as meier has noted, in the 18th century, such
terms as “rude” and barbarous were used to describe
countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. In the 19th
century, those terms were dropped in favour of new
terms such as “backward” and primitive”. In the 20th
century, especially after the end of world war if the
previous terms were equally abandoned in their places,
new terms such as “underdevelopment” and “developing”
were used.
At the inoment, it has been suggested in some
quarters that such tenures as “less developed”,
“developing”, “poor”, and emergent countries should used
instead of underdeveloped countries. The reason for this
suggestion as spotlighted by Walter Rodney, “is to avoid
any unpleasantness which may be attached to it” and
which may be interpreted as including such physical
deformities as mental and moral underdevelopment.
It is also been suggested that the previous
derogatory terms should be dropped in favour of less
offensive or mild ones such as “developing” or emergent.
This is perceived as a calculated design or ploy by the
west to mask or common flag economic stagnation and
exploration exists in underdeveloped areas. It is
contended for instance that the application of such terms
as “developing” instead of underdeveloped gives an
erroneous impression, that these countries are changing
positively and thus are developing and that if the right
policies are implemented, sooner or later these countries
will definitely catch up with the developed countries of
the world.
In view of this assumption, the Marxist Theorist
prefer to use the term “underdevelopment” to describe
the less developed parts of the world. The reason for this
is that the term “underdevelopment” is believed to be best
concept that can apply describe the state of stagnation
and exploitation that is prevalent in these societies. We
now shall examine the meaning of the concept of
underdevelopment.
Underdevelopment the Liberal Perspective
The liberal scholars conceive of underdevelopment
in terms of backwardness and primitivity. This explains
why it is common for them to use the term “agrarian” and
pre-industrial to in apply underdeveloped parts of the
world. Implicit in this conception of underdevelopment is
the fact that it is a natural or original condition, which
has existed from fine immoral. In other words it is
believed by the bourgeois scholars that underdevelopment is not caused by an external factor
but rather is induced by internal variable.
Pulating the above, it is the alternative explanation
which is equally offered to support the view that
underdevelopment is a natural process. In this view, it is
stated that development and underdevelopment are
natural process ordained by God. It is contended that the
developed parts of the world have been endowed by God
with wisdom and high intelligence quotient (IQ). This
explains why they are superior and advanced. On the
other hand, the same God is said to have created the
underdeveloped societies differently. He makes them to
be culturally and psychologically interior, which is said to
be responsible for their state of backwardness.
It is important to state that even though the
bourgeois scholars are agreed on the fact that natural
and internal forces causes underdevelopment, there is no
agreement with respect to which internal variable actually bring it about. According to Ragna Nurke in his
work “problems of capital accumulation in poor
countries; a country is backward and poor because it is
poor.
This represents a vicious circle of poverty that “runs
from low income productivity and then back to real
income.
In his own contribution, Richard Eastern line
attributed underdevelopment to the eliminate, over
population and lack of motivation on the part of the
population.
Other scholars still blame the situation on radical
grounds, peasants conservation, and strong attachments
to tribal customs such as extended family and hand fame
system.
In view of the fact bourgeois scholars attribute
underdevelopment to internal factors, this has influenced
how they defined it. According to them it can be defined as a natural state of social, psychological, political land
economic backwardness occasioned by natural and
internal milieu. This definition leads the liberal scholars
to postulate that the way out of this backwardness is
through modernization. That is “Europeanization” or
“Americanization” of the economy in order to stimulate
growth and progress.
Underdevelopment: The Marxist Perspective
To the radical scholars, it is untrue that
underdevelopment connotes backwardness, primituity or
lack of underdevelopment. This is because every people
have developed in one way or the other and to a greater
or lesser extent.
Equally untrue is the assertion that it is a natural
process to the radical man –made process and a
manifestation of a long period of economic and political
relationship between these countries and the advanced
industrialized parts of the world.

Quite unlike the bourgeois scholars who claimed
that capitalism played no part in the creation of
underdevelopment but natural and internal factors; the
radical scholars think differently. The thesis of
dependency theorists is that underdevelopment is caused
by capitalism which guarantees exploitation. This
position has been supported not only empirically but
logical and factual presentation of concrete evidence. For
instance, while supporting the view that
underdevelopment is caused by the interplay between
internal structures; Gunder Frank asserted:
Underdevelopment is not simply
non-development, but is a unique
type of socio-economic structure
brought about by the integration of
society concerned into the sphere of
the advanced capitalist countries.
It is the view of the radical scholars that it is the
same process that fosters development in the
industrialized parts of the world which fools development

1.8 Scope and Limitations of the Study
The scope of this study centers around the
dependency status of Africa, particularly, how the
dependency status endangers the economic development
of most African states. The scope of this study also
emphasis on how a sustainable development can be
attained inspite of the dependent nature of Africans and
particularly Nigeria.
Limitations
Too many factors stood as limitations to this
research study, insufficient finance, was one major
problem faced during this research work. This study also
suffered the problem of data collection and management.

1.9 Operationalization of Concepts
In this study, some political concepts will be
adopted or rather applied in relation to the study and
they includes as follows
Oligarchy: Government by the few, the logically exclusive
categories of government by one, the few or the many
that have been widely deployed, but the terminology has
varied for example, aristocracy, is a form of government
by the few, Aristotle distinguished between rules who
govern in their own interests (Oligarchy). Sociologists
have made claims about a necessary connection between
organization and oligarchy.
Hegemony: When social class, exits power over others
beyond that accounted for by coercion or law, it may be
described as meaning hegemonic, drawing on the Greek
word “hegemony” meaning chieftaincies. Thus she
bourgeois was regarded as hegemonic within capitalists
society by gramsic, who believed their power depended on

the permeation by bourgeois values of all organ of the
society.
Elite: Privileged minority, a small group of people within
a larger group who have more power, social standard,
wealth or talent then the rest of the group restricting
powers and privileges in a society to a member of one
small favoured group, and the belief that this
arrangement is justified by their support.