Home-Grown Recipe for Fast-Tracking Sustainable Development in Nigeria

Abstract

In spite of Nigeria’s rich human and natural resources endowment, endemic corruption has constituted a serious impediment to sustainable development. Nigeria was ranked 148 out of 180 countries in 2017 by the Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, which shows that the country is very corrupt. The application of false paradigm model of faulty and inappropriate advice provided by well-meaning but often uninformed and biased international expert advisers has also exacerbated Nigeria’s underdevelopment. This paper reviews some theories of growth and development and identifies corruption as a bane of sustainable development in Nigeria. It also postulates a home-grown recipe for accelerating sustainable development in Nigeria to include: forward integration of primary industries and backward integration of manufacturing industries, economic diversification, zero tolerance for and stiffer penalty against corruption at the household, firm and government levels. Therefore, a strict execution of the above would go a long way in fast-tracking sustainable development in Nigeria and thereby make the country one of the most desirable destinations in the world.

Keywords: Corruption, Recipe, Growth and development theories, Sustainable development, Nigeria

DOI: 10.7176/JESD/12-16-03

Publication date:August 31^st 2021