THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT

THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT

 Abstract

This study attempts to identify and understand the real causes of rural underdevelopment in Nigeria and to offer recommendations for solving the problem, based on the identification and understanding. Its starting point is an exposition of the superficial, narrow, empiricist, neo-Malthusian, and a historical conceptions and approaches of the World Bank and organic intellectuals of imperialism. It posits an alternative framework of analysis – the Marxist- Leninist theoretical political economy perspective — as the correct one for dealing with the problem. Working on the central thesis that the penetration of capitalism into agriculture necessarily leads to the expropriation of the peasants, and the enrichment of the international monopolies, the local bourgeoisie and the middle peasants, it traces the root causes of contemporary rural poverty to the colonial conquest and the imposition of capitalism in Nigeria towards the end of the last century. It examines the general features of the Funtua Agricultural Development Project, and sees the FADP as a continuation of the imperialist strategy to stabilise world capitalism, open markets for commodities for which there are no markets in Europe and America, secure sources of raw materials, and consolidate imperialist political influence to reinforce its domination and oppression of the neo—colonial peoples. Four villages in Bakori district in Funtua Local Government Area of Kaduna State are taken as our case study, and the role of international finance capital in the transformation of the agrarian relations in the district with particular reference to the impact of the Funtua Agricultural Development Project is examined. Data from primary and secondary sources are provided which in the main substantiate our theoretical proposition As immediate solutions, we recommend the democratisation of the management and organisation of the FADP and similar projects to allow for peasants’ representations in decisionmaking the return of confiscated and expropriated lands to their owners; and the amendment of the Land Use Act (1978) to restrict the amount of land that could be leased to any person or group of persons at any one time. It sees no end to the problems of poverty, land expropriation, and general underdevelopment until the capitalist socio-economic system is replaced with socialism in which the workers, peasants and other working people have the power to control, direct, and use in a rational manner the product of their labour and the resources of the country.

THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT

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