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Pre-colonial Economy and the Advent of Monetization in Nigeria: The Experience of the Peasantry in the Niger Delta Region

Chimaroke Mgba PhD

Abstract

The modern Nigerian economy being a colonial creation was integrated into the Western or global capitalist system and this has had grave impact on the pre-colonial societies that existed in the country. Monetization with its concomitants was crucial in that process of integration. The peasantry or peasant economy was one of the several pre-colonial economies in Nigeria impacted by the country’s contact with Western capitalism. What and how monetization of the economy impacts on the peasantry are the questions that this paper addresses albeit in brief? The principal objective is to examine the impact/outcome of monetization of the Nigerian economy on the peasantry in the Niger Delta region. It argues fundamentally that the outcome of the monetization of the peasant economy in the Niger Delta of Nigeria is far-reaching as it is pernicious. Despite its huge natural resources especially oil and gas resources, the Niger Delta region is largely underdeveloped and suffers from high levels of poverty, inequality, and rising unemployment. These are existential conditions created by the intensification of oil related economic activities which are integral elements of the monetization of the economy. The paper recommends that for a reversal of the subsisting situation in the peasantry in the Niger Delta region, the Nigerian State must restructure its political economy away from an oil-dominated one to emphasise agriculture and the political empowerment of the peasantry. This will ensure that the socio-economic needs and welfare of the peasants are prioritized in political and policy-making processes. The paper depends principally on secondary sources for data collection.

Keywords

Monetizationglobal capitalismpeasants/peasantryoilNiger Delta region.

References

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