ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the influence of oil on the economic development strategies in Nigeria from the 1970s to 1986 when the Structural Adjustment Programs was introduced. It examines the extent to which the use of the revenue from oil contributed to the attainment of the modernization project of Nigeria's policy makers. The chapter analyzes why in spite of the enormous revenue from oil and the various projects aimed at transforming the economy that were executed, the country was plunged into a serious economic crisis by the early 1980s. Development planning was regarded as the ideal agency through which oil money would be used to effect the rapid transformation. The chapter examines how the oil money was expected to contribute to the promotion of industrial development and for increasing the level of indigenous ownership over the industrial enterprises. The main objectives of the indigenization policy are the creation of opportunities for Nigerian indigenous businessmen to exercise more control over the economy.
