THE DIALECTICS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY AND ELITE CORRUPTION IN A POSTCOLONIAL STATE: A NIGERIAN CASE STUDY

Abstract

We have principally examined in this study the dialectics of the political economy and the trouble with Nigeria. We have analyzed how the political economy has constituted a specific segment of the trouble with the Nigerian postcolonial state. The Nigerian narrative is depicted in the study as a saga of corrupt practices. The Nigerian state has further been characterized in the analysis as a vacuous entity for the feeding of the greed of the elite, as the result becomes a political economy of inefficiencies and disorder. Hence, the trouble with Nigeria in a way, hinges on the siege laid on the political economy by an unrepentant elite, which blatantly continues to articulate, implement and defend self-serving policies as public policies. The political economy challenge in Nigeria it was concluded is for the elite in generic categorization, to arrive at the realization, that the elephantine Nigerian state cannot possibly be propelled in the forward direction, while ignoring the co-citizenship-status of the masses of the state.