Nigeria: Political instability undermines prospects for economic diversification

The fragile balance of power among the country’s elites and the policy instability it fosters is the main reason the goal has remained out of reach, Zainab Usman, author of Economic Diversification in Nigeria: The Politics of Building a Post-Oil Economy, tells The Africa Report.

Usman, director of the Africa program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, challenges the idea that Nigeria suffers from a “resource curse”. The problem, she says, is not the existence of oil, but failure to achieve a modern diversified economy. Arab countries, Australia and Canada have used their resource endowments to achieve prosperity, she says.  Resources such as oil, she says, can exacerbate existing problems, but do not cause them. “The diagnosis itself is incorrect.”

When political stability is achieved, policy is implemented and economic growth results, Usman says, pointing