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Nigeria: Model of African Reform
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17856 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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3 / 1990 |
2,084 Words |
| Author
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Michael Johns
Michael Johns is a foreign policy analyst at the Heritage
Foundation in Washington, D.C., where he specializes in the
Third World and Africa. |
As the people of Eastern Europe and the Baltic republics struggle to bury the socialist, totalitarian disease that has plagued them since World War II, African autocrats continue leading their nations down a postcolonial authoritarian slide, oblivious to the widely acknowledged failure of socialism and totalitarianism. The result for Africa is continent-wide disaster.
Most African nations possess minerals and other natural resources that should serve as an impetus to sustained economic growth. But statist economic policies, combined with government corruption and occasional outright malevolence, have destroyed African economics.
Africa's most populous nation, Nigeria, has experienced many of the postcolonial hardships that have afflicted the African continent, such as ethnic motivated civil war and successive authoritarian military governments. But Nigeria is now trying desperately to become the exception to Africa's typical style of governance, and the country may just pull it off.
Under the leadership of Nigerian President Ibrahim Babangida, steps are being taken to make Nigeria one of Africa's few democracies with a free-market economy. Babangida promises two-party presidential elections in 1992 and a return to democratic rule. The Nigerian leader also has initiated an economic reform program that recognizes the role of economic incentive as a catalyst for growth. Last year, while neighboring West African economies shrunk, the Nigerian gross domestic product grew 4.1 percent.
Were Nigeria just any country in Africa, these reforms -and the positive
... (1998 of 13573 Characters)
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