Conflict and Accommodation in a Post-Imperial Order: Reflections on Nigerian Policy towards Foreign Capital, 1972-2010

Abstract

The struggle for the overthrow of colonial rule and the eventual attainment of independence in 1960 fell short of expectations as neo-colonial structures tended to generally undermine the expected gains of political independence.The challenge faced by the ascendant power elites of the post-war Nigerian state is how to redesign, articulate and nurture an auto-centric post-colonial economy.This paper attempts to capture the character of post-civil war policy of the Nigerian state towards foreign capital. Approach to the study is based on the methodology of historiography and the application of secondary data. It examines the main thrust of government’s policy in this regard. The paper concludes that although a crisis of confidence predicates the relationship between the triangular drivers of post-imperial Nigerian political economy, their interest in the preservation of the institutions of private property tend to converge.This convergence dissolves the conflict in the interest of super ordinate objective of capitalist relations of production – the reproduction of a free enterprise system that promotes local and international capitalist interests within the Nigerian state.