The Political Economy of Agricultural Development in Northern Nigeria

The Northern Region Nigeria is a region that contradicts its natural endowments. In spite of the existence of several economic resources such as tin, kaolin, a variety of agricultural products and a huge fertile land, the people remain in abject poverty leading to plethora of crisis informs of insurgency, electoral violence and crime (Titus, et al. 2017). Out of the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria, three are in the northern part of the country and they have the worst indices of poverty compared to the other zones. The Northern Nigeria, occupying 70% of Nigeria'sland mass, with its huge solid mineral deposits, growing mining industry. The Northern region has 50 million Muslims, one of the largest Muslim populations in Africa. These Muslims are of Hausa/Fulani ethnicity, which is the largest ethnic subgroup in Africa and Nigeria. The Northwest with 77.7% North-central having 67.5% and Northeast with 76.3% (United Nation, 2012). Northern Nigeria becomes a hub of joblessness, crime, illiteracy, maternal mortality, early marriage and recently, farmer herdsmen crisis. The political economy of agriculture in Northern Nigeria, this has been developed over the past four decades and has been important not only in the study of agriculture in Sub Saharan Africa but more widely. Nigeria has long been a case of interest for the study of political and economic development. The political economy of the Nigerian society has suffered pitfalls resulting in an economy powered by visionless leaders, known for reckless spending, over-invoicing, diverting state finances into private account, thereby plunging the country into economic, social and political wretchedness (Ganiyu, et al. 2014). It is a common knowledge to many across the globe that the Northern region performs at a level of productivity far less than its full potential and other part of the country. This is further exacerbated by population increase which outpaces food production per capita the latter of which is in decline; this situation also results in the concomitant effect of increased importation of food in the region (Nwachukwu, 2016).

Nigeria is a great example of a post-colonial developing nation and its developmental history encompasses very important lessons on the political and economic obstruction of the developing world (Ugwuanyi, 2014). The country as a colonial entity enjoyed thriving and boom in the agricultural production and the mining of mineral resources such as iron ore, tin and coal. The Nigeria foreign exchange was earned from the aforementioned resources. Each region had a proportional advantage through which it made its significant contributions to the centre/federal government. The Northern Nigeria for instance, was known for groundnut production, the West for her cocoa while the East produced palm oil. During the British colonial era, the politics of development was already manifested even with the construction of railway line through those areas that had products that could yield some revenue to the centre (Osita-Njoku, 2016).

According to Njoku (1998), the British political economy in Nigeria was along the line of economic exploitation of the colonized by foisting it into the path of the European capitalist economic system. Ezeanyika (2010) argued that the overall subordination of colonized nations by dominating foreign power is to ―keep the colonized people incomplete political subjection, and to maximize local human and natural resources‖. However, there are some factors that negatively impacting agricultural development in Nigeria include land tenure systems; increasing populations and constantly decreasing farmland size; inadequate of capital particularly for the adoption of improved agricultural technology; never-ending conflicts in the Northern Nigeria; throng rural-urban migration; low level of education; systemic corruption of government officials; excessive dependence of oil economy to the exclusion of agricultural economy; unfavourable economic development policies; inadequate infrastructure among others.

In October 1, 1960, Nigeria gained her political independence from the British colonial master, the production of crude oil had changed the dynamics of the Nigerian political economy. Oil boom production is now the mainstay of the economy. Luqman and Lawal (2011) stated that hardly could anything be written about the political economy of Nigeria without reference to its history of oil production. Despite the fact that the oil industry remains the mono-economic fulcrum of the Nigerian economy, its contribution to economic development and improvement of the living standards and welfare of Nigerians remain doubtful. This was because Nigerians case is simply a situation of poverty amidst plenty. Instead of our visionless leaders reinvesting the resources from excess crude oil sale into development of infrastructure like power, education, health, public transportation, water, housing, good roads and national security, among other sectors, what the country witnessed is apolitical class deeply entrenched incorruption and siphoning oil income abroad, whereas country like Indonesia turned crude oil income into productive investment for the benefits of the citizen (Luqman and Lawal, 2011; Ganiyu, et al. 2014). This unpleasant situation can not augur well in the development of a stable political and economic institution necessary for building a strong and successful nation.