Browsing by Author "Olowu, Dele"

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Appraising Nigerian Development: Implications for the Theories of Development
(1986) Olowu, Dele
"The literature on development has emphasized economic growth almost to the exclusion of all other indicators of social change. Indeed it used to be argued that strong, highly centralised governments were necessary for the prosecution of the goals of economic growth and development in the Third World. Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, provided one of the best illustrations of this kind of reasoning. Competitive party politics in a relatively decentralised federal system led to economic rut and the collapse of the First Republic (1960-1966). On the other hand, strong and hierachically centralised military governance between 1966 and 1979 was reputed to have led to remarkable socioeconomic development. The purpose of this paper is to critically examine these claims both from the points of view of economic, social, and political change in Nigeria and underscore the implications for development theory. The paper will therefore be sub-divided into three major sections as follows: (1) The Development Debate, (2) Appraisal of the Nigerian Development Process, and (3) Towards an Integrated View of Development."
Extremist Conflicts, State Failure and Development in Africa: Peace and Governance Options for Citizens
(2014) Olowu, Dele
"This paper reviews the current state of extremist conflicts in different countries of Africa and after analyzing the problem in terms of state failure, provides insights and suggestions based on the work of institutional analysts, including the Ostroms and others like Abraham Kuiper of the Netherlands on how to contain and reverse state failure in the region. The fact that civilian politicians and military authorities have failed to address this problem over the years underscores the need for alternative civic organs to champion the cause of institutional renewal and state resilience. This article targets a group of people whose influence has grown tremendously in Africa: faith based organizations (FBOs), who while being a part of the problem presently may hold the key to transforming the continent. In that sense, they would be playing the historical role which the people of faith have played in the transformation of western societies."
Governance of Nigeria's Villages and Cities through Indigenous Institutions
(1995) Olowu, Dele; Erero, John
"This article seeks to understand how Nigerian urban and rural communities are organized for self-governance in the face of the failure of state-based structures in Africa. Utilizing inputs from research findings by a network of Nigerian researchers, the article affirms the existence of local institutions for self governance across selected urban and rural communities in Nigeria. These local institutions which include political, administrative, socio-cultural, development and economic institutions are providing most of the goods and services needed by the people. The article identifies the various forms of local non-governmental organizations or local development organs and concludes by identifying the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats which characterize these local institutions. It is the contention of the article that these elements be taken into consideration in attempting a possible convergence of state and society institutions if the search for good governance in Africa is not to end in failure."
Perspectives on Improving Institutional Capacities of Third World Administrative Systems with Special Reference to Africa
(1985) Olowu, Dele
From the introduction: "In spite of elaborate efforts made across social science disciplines to fully comprehend the nature of Third World development since World War II as most of these 'new' states became independent, only modest progress has been made. Yet, policy advocacy could not wait for the reaching of better or more comprehensive understanding. Hence, policy advice in diverse areas ? economics, political organization, and the management of the development process ? has been preferred in rapid succession without any real paradigm shift or the expected social transformation of the new states. "This paper examines the different perspectives on strategies for raising institutional capacity in Third World countries, with special reference to Africa. The reason for selecting institutional capacity is that it encompasses all facets of the development process and represents an area in which the artisans' attempts at producing strong, productive, and responsive administrative systems continue to be an elusive goal. A recent publication of the United Nations notes rather wryly that 'generally, the results of administrative reform programs (in the Third World) have fallen short of expectations.'
Rethinking African Governance
(2009) Olowu, Dele
"Discussions on the future of African development led in the late 1980s led to a critical refocusing on governance. Since then enormous resources have been poured by African governments and development partners into improving governance. This paper reviews this experience and suggests a different approach to enhancing African governance, taking a cue from the present consensus on the subject. "States exist to promote the welfare of their citizens. They do this mainly by providing public services, services that cannot or will not be efficiently, effectively or equitably provided by private sector agencies without prodding from public authorities. The quality of these public services has a direct impact on a county's economy, social integration and living standards. But African states have failed where it matters most--in the provision of adequate public facilities and services that will energize economic performance, consolidate democracy and peace in the continent. "This paper situates this systemic failure in the triple failure of African public service management institutions to attract and retain talent, to mobilize resources to pay for scarce skills and also to create appropriate institutional mechanisms that would ensure high productivity and responsible performance within the public sector. The paper discusses the present international consensus for assisting Africans to tackle these problems as embedded in the Paris Declaration of 2005 and shows that the program is not only over-ambitious and impractical but also a-historical. The paper then proposes an alternative strategy that responds to the above-mentioned challenges in a way that ensures that Africa modernizes its public service institutions to support democratic developmental states that improve the welfare of their own people in the age of global competition for scarce human resource skills."