The Interaction between Defence Spending, Debt service Obligation and Economic Growth in Nigeria

Abstract

This paper has sought answers to fundamental questions relating to whether and how military spending determines socioeconomic conditions in developing countries, with special reference to Nigeria. Considering the apparent empirical research results about relationships between defense expenditure and economic development in Nigeria, the following summary can be stated with reasonable confidence with regards to HOD, Defense, Debt, Consumption, Gov.spending, Rgdp and Instability: Firstly, the defense burdens of other developing countries and Nigeria generally correspond to the political, security, and economic realities they face. In other words African states including Nigeria invest in their defense at low levels by global standards. Secondly, Military spending development relationships cannot be characterized in terms of universal empirical regularities governing large heterogeneous groups of countries such as Developing countries like Nigeria. The above findings also reveal a bitter irony or paradox: “States that enjoy relative peace and plenty seem to reap more economic benefits from defense spending, while those suffering from conflict and poverty pay higher economic costs for their defense”. Hence in the larger scheme of things, conflict- and poverty-reduction efforts will likely produce more beneficial linkages between defense and development than well-intended calls to reduce military spending in favour of development. It is recommended that governments of developing nations, especially Nigeria, should pay more attention to civil regime in their expenditures; especially expenditure on education rather than military regime, since it is believed that more development could be achieved during the civilian rule than during the military. Government should spend more money on human capital development which is the bedrock of every society, rather than on military spending. When government spends her resources on human capital development, she develops the whole society. So therefore, it is believed that when government does that, the whole of economy of Nigeria, will therefore, be developed

Keywords: Defense spending, Economic Growth, Co integration, Human Capital Development, Nigeria.

JEL Classification: D74, F66, H51, H63, O47.