Nigeria, blessed with abundant natural resources, a youthful and resilient population, a rich cultural heritage, and strategic geographical positioning, remains paradoxically underdeveloped. This underdevelopment is not merely a failure of capacity or circumstance—it is, in many respects, the outcome of deliberate actions and systemic dysfunctions embedded within leadership, institutions, and societal structures.
By Prof. Chiwuike Uba
Even more insidious is the resulting alienation of the people: politically, economically, culturally, and psychologically. The term “development of underdevelopment,” as conceptualized by scholars like Andre Gunder Frank, accurately captures this paradox—where development in certain quarters thrives only through the intentional suppression or neglect of others. In Nigeria, this phenomenon is starkly evident across political, socioeconomic, traditional, religious, and communal spheres.
At the core of Nigeria’s political dysfunction is a system that has turned governance into an exclusive club rather than a vehicle for service. The ruling class often manipulates electoral processes, suppresses opposition, and enacts policies with minimal public consultation. Power is centralized, and decision-making is frequently disconnected from the realities of the people. Nepotism, cronyism, and ethnic favoritism breed resentment and deepen the chasm between citizens and the state. The result is a political environment where most Nigerians feel excluded from governance, reduced to mere spectators in matters that determine their futures. This alienation is worsened by a lack of transparency, weak institutions, and impunity for corrupt leaders. Regions like the Niger Delta, South East, and parts of the North feel historically marginalized, fueling separatist agitations and deepening the crisis of national identity.
The socioeconomic landscape is even more damning. Despite the immense wealth generated from oil and other sectors, Nigeria is home to one of the largest populations of people living in extreme poverty. As of 2024, over 71 million Nigerians live below the international poverty line of $2.15 per day, according to the World Bank. However, this figure only scratches the surface of the real hardship experienced by most citizens. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, about 133 million Nigerians—nearly 63% of the population—are trapped in multidimensional poverty, a more holistic measure that includes lack of access to healthcare, education, clean water, sanitation, housing, and employment.
This staggering figure paints a clearer picture of deprivation, showing that the crisis extends beyond income to include the total collapse of basic social infrastructure and opportunity. Nigeria remains the global epicenter of extreme poverty—surpassing even India, which has a significantly larger population. Public resources are routinely embezzled by those in power, while education, healthcare, infrastructure, and job creation remain neglected. Basic amenities like clean water, electricity, and decent roads are luxuries for many. The rich enjoy private security, international healthcare, and elite education, while the majority are left to navigate a broken system with minimal support. This economic exclusion is systematic. Access to opportunities is often determined not by merit or innovation but by connections to the elite circle.
Young Nigerians, in particular, are the victims of this system—they are unemployed, underemployed, and uninspired, leading many to seek dangerous migration routes abroad or turn to crime, drugs, and violence. Youth unemployment currently stands at over 40%, with a significant proportion of graduates unable to find decent jobs years after leaving school. The dream of a better life through education and hard work is dimming, replaced by desperation and disillusionment.
The situation is made worse by infrastructural decisions that displace and disempower the poor in the name of development. Across Nigeria, slums and informal settlements—where millions of the urban poor live—are demolished under the guise of urban renewal and beautification. According to Amnesty International and the Social and Economic Rights Action Centre (SERAC), over one million people have been forcefully evicted in Lagos alone in the last two decades. These areas are replaced with luxury housing estates that are neither accessible nor affordable to the displaced. No provisions are made for resettlement or low-income housing alternatives. Families who have lived in these communities for generations are evicted overnight without compensation or legal recourse, their homes bulldozed to make way for the rich. In cities like Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt, this has become an unspoken policy—development for the wealthy, displacement for the poor.
Markets that once served as economic lifelines for low-income traders are razed to construct shopping malls, bus terminals, or “modern structures” that exclude the very people they once served. Hawkers, petty traders, and small business owners are chased off the streets in the name of orderliness,
