Abstract:
Since the declaration of Nigeria’s independence in 1960, the country has witnessed series of upheavals. This has to do with political and economic destabilization. Hence, our leaders have tried chains of economic policies or reforms that are hoped to place the country on a sound footing. As a result structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) was adopted under General Ibrahim Babanigida’s Military administration in 1986, but could not yield the desired result. Nigeria in a bid to find a lasting solution to her economic predicament, implemented National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) under president Olusegun Obasanjo’s democratic rule. NEEDS as a medium terms planning strategy was a blue print for new order. It contains all the envisaged policies and programmes of the federal government for the period 2003-2007 and far beyond and serves as the fountain of the much touted Obasanjo reforms. NEEDS is not only a macroeconomic plan document, but also a comprehensive vision, goals and principles of a new Nigeria that would be made possible through four key policies of wealth creation, employment generation, poverty eradication and value reorientation. Using evidence from political and economic variables, this study examines the politics of Economic reforms in Nigeria, analyzing NEEDS and SAP. To that extent, this study gears towards actualizing three outstanding objectives which include: to ascertain if there is any fundamental relationship between the NEEDS and SAP as economic reform strategies; to find out if there is any prospect that NEED will succeed in Nigeria where SAP had failed. And lastly, to know whether the market reforms that form the essential policy thrust of NEEDS is reconcilable with the welfarist or social charter of NEEDS. As a framework of analysis, Marxist theory of social production and reproduction will be used to analyze the phenomenon in question. And finally, to offer options to realizing stronger economic stability in Nigeria.
