Development interceptions in Nigeria
Development is both a physical reality and a state of mind in which society through some combination of social, economic and institutional processes, secure the means for obtaining a better life. Development in all societies must have at least three objectives: to increase the availability and widen the distribution of basic life sustaining goods, to raise the level of living and to expand the range of economic and social choices (Torado & smith 2003:22). Western exploration and domination of faraway countries in the south was at the time dressed up as ‘helping the underdeveloped’ countries to become more western, i.e. to develop. However, what happened instead was the exploration of these countries in …show more content…
This is also around the period that modernisation theories were beginning to develop. When newly independent states in the third world were labelled as ‘underdeveloped’ and countries embarked on varying development missions. At the time of decolonisation the western powers viewed industrialisation as the key to building up and to succeed in economic growth. Third world underdevelopment was seen as the result of a lack of capital and appropriate preconditions needed to appropriate the ‘take off’ of an economy, and it relied upon the patriarchal perceptions of western policy makers that the third world must be controlled and sheparded into their way of development. This was summarised by Walt Rostows ‘stages of development’ which included traditional society, preconditions for take-off, take-off, drive to maturity and finally the age of High mass consumption. (Rostow 1960) it is based on the capitalist and more Western focus on the rising per capita, after going through a modernisation process and as development was quantified only in monetary terms (GDP) this put third world countries at a serious disadvantage. Since Nigeria gained its independence it has never been able to fully achieve its potential as the bright hope for Africa due to mismanagement and misappropriation of
Development is both a physical reality and a state of mind in which society through some combination of social, economic and institutional processes, secure the means for obtaining a better life. Development in all societies must have at least three objectives: to increase the availability and widen the distribution of basic life sustaining goods, to raise the level of living and to expand the range of economic and social choices (Torado & smith 2003:22). Western exploration and domination of faraway countries in the south was at the time dressed up as ‘helping the underdeveloped’ countries to become more western, i.e. to develop. However, what happened instead was the exploration of these countries in …show more content…
This is also around the period that modernisation theories were beginning to develop. When newly independent states in the third world were labelled as ‘underdeveloped’ and countries embarked on varying development missions. At the time of decolonisation the western powers viewed industrialisation as the key to building up and to succeed in economic growth. Third world underdevelopment was seen as the result of a lack of capital and appropriate preconditions needed to appropriate the ‘take off’ of an economy, and it relied upon the patriarchal perceptions of western policy makers that the third world must be controlled and sheparded into their way of development. This was summarised by Walt Rostows ‘stages of development’ which included traditional society, preconditions for take-off, take-off, drive to maturity and finally the age of High mass consumption. (Rostow 1960) it is based on the capitalist and more Western focus on the rising per capita, after going through a modernisation process and as development was quantified only in monetary terms (GDP) this put third world countries at a serious disadvantage. Since Nigeria gained its independence it has never been able to fully achieve its potential as the bright hope for Africa due to mismanagement and misappropriation of