ABSTRACT
This concluding chapter builds on the presentations in the preceding chapters. It focuses on such critical and crosscutting themes as the colonial experience and creation of development imbalance in Nigeria; extremism and centrifugal forces in Nigeria’s development; leadership and development; influence of globalization and the global order on Nigeria’s development; economic mismanagement; security and resource distribution challenges; federalism and the need for renegotiation of unity; explanatory power of theoretical orientations such as patrimonialism and the new political economy in the apprehension of Nigeria’s development challenges. These themes are used in building concluding arguments about Nigeria’s development challenges over time. The chapter therefore argues inter alia for a radical rethink of development in Nigeria and the enthronement of a development paradigm and practice anchored on distributional justice, equity, true federalism, productive and goal-oriented leadership, diminishing of political corruption and prudent utilization of resources. Far from imploding, Nigeria needs a development framework that addresses both diversity and national cohesion. These are all critical to the pursuit and actualization of the development aspirations of Nigeria.
