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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Between elite protectionism and popular resistance: the political economy of Nigeria's fractured State since juridical independence
Author:Amuwo, AdekunleISNI
Year:2010
Periodical:Journal of Contemporary African Studies (ISSN 0258-9001)
Volume:28
Issue:4
Pages:423-442
Language:English
Geographic term:Nigeria
Subjects:authoritarianism
political elite
political economy
political history
resistance
External link:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/02589001.2010.512739
Abstract:This paper gives a new reading of the political economy of Nigeria within the context of British colonialism, the spin-off effects of structural imperialism and the stranglehold of an increasingly desperate transnational capital. The principal argument is that whilst these structures do not explain everything - to the extent that the Nigerian ruling elite has played a key role in the country's underdevelopment - they tend to create the conditions for the largely amoral and anti-people politics of the fractious ruling elite. Programmed to implode by colonialism with all the booby traps of a lopsided federal system and a monocultural economy and the scenarios of failure constituted by primordial cleavages, the resultant elite protectionism in its multiple manifestations hides the saliency of class struggle. In addition, the artificial postcolonial State - with no cultural resonance on the ground, but representing the primary means of class relations and reproduction - has been cynically exploited by the ruling elite and transnational capital. Popular resistance to the current gridlock will succeed only insofar as the dominated classes radicalize the struggle for popular democracy and the construction of an autochthonous Nigerian State. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]
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