PETROLEUM AND STRUCTURAL CHANGE IN A DEVELOPING SOCIETY: THE CASE OF NIGERIA (DEVELOPMENT, UNDERDEVELOPMENT, OPEC, INTERNATIONAL TRADE, CAPITAL ACCUMULATION)

Introduction. The study of national development as Gunnar Myrdal has observed requires an understanding of a country's history, politics, theories, ideologies, economic structures and levels, social stratification, agriculture and industry (Myrdal, 1968:x). As he cautioned, the study of these dimensions of development cannot take place in isolation but must be viewed "in their mutual relationship." This study of Nigeria provides a multidimensional analysis of development. The Nigerian development experience is considered as the interrelation of: (a) economic development paradigm which guided development thinking; (b) the national planning model and apparatus employed; (c) the ideology of nationalism; and (d) the internal and external factors in Nigeria's environment which combined to influence its development strategies.; Summary. As a society, Nigeria has undergone profound changes over the period of the last 25 years. It was transformed from a primarily agricultural society to an industrializing one. A key source of this change has been the emergence of the petroleum economy. Nigeria's GDP grew an extraordinary 81 percent per annum on average between 1960 and 1980. Yet, the aggregate performance of the petroleum economy was far better, adding to Nigerian economic wealth at an average rate of 7,400 percent per annum. Judged on these terms, Nigeria's overall economic performance from independence to 1980 was spectacular; the performance of its petroleum economy astounding.; Despite this performance, the structure of Nigeria's political economy is nearly the same as it was at independence. It remains one in which economic life depends critically upon world-market conditions and the level of trade with developed economies. This dependence has been painfully realized by Nigeria between 1980 and 1983 when petroleum export revenues fell by over 44 percent. Not only has Nigeria shown little economic progress since independence, its socio-political development has been quite slow on several dimensions.; The central argument of this research is that Nigeria has experienced growth without change. The fundamental obstacle to Nigerian development has been a structural condition of underdevelopment which it shares with many Third World societies. Unless structural change is effected which releases Nigeria from its post-colonial dependence and which created the conditions for autonomous development, development will remain elusive.