Nigeria, Capitalism and the Question of Equity

ABSTRACT The emergence of social problems in the modern capitalist system: child labour, tyrannical foremen, teeming slums, poverty, increasing crime and so on are reflections of impaired distributive system. This is because the quest for social equity is contradictory to the development of capitalism itself. This paper examines the incorporation of Nigeria into the world capitalist system and how this entrenched socio-economic and political inequity in the country. The balkanization of Africa, which gave birth to Nigeria, into colonial possessions, broke up previous political and cultural ties with the new political frontiers cutting across old ethnic boundaries. The Nigerian state, like its African counterparts, was confronted with abortive gradual transformation of socio-political system which was self-sufficient, which did not need any invisible hand, and which was based on welfarism. The paper submits that the idea behind Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) was a form of dictation of the global capitalism, on new terms, by international financial institutions, to Africa. SAP was a typical journey into the mainstream capitalism and glaring effort that destroyed the failing economy. The paper further examines the evils of SAP and the state of socio-economic equity in Nigeria making it clear that there is embedded inequity in Nigerian ‘grafted ’ capitalist system