Chapter One

DEVELOPMENT AND UNDERDEVELOPMENT

C.I. Anah

Definitions
The concepts of development and underdevelopment have defied
universal definitions. This derives from the fact that the two
concepts are rather vast and susceptible to subjective
interpretations that may obscure the essence of the definitions. It is
therefore more elucidating to state the context within which each of
the concepts of development and underdevelopment is defined.

For instance, it is possible to define development from an

exclusively economic, social, political or cultural view point.
However, it should be noted that these aspects of development are
interrelated and only a holistic approach that captures all or majority
of these forms of development will be adequate. It is in this vein that
the Independent Commission on International Development Issues,
observes that “Development never will be, and never can be defined
to universal satisfaction. It refers broadly speaking to desirable
social and economic progress and people will always have different
views about what is desirable”. (1980:48)

Development
The concept of development connotes improvement, progress,
growth and positive change. Perhaps as a result of these desirable
attributes of development, governments, nongovernmental
organizations and even individuals embark on essentially economic
ventures which they label as development. For instance, almost all
projects embarked upon by the government is pronounced
developmental, even when they are not. A typical example is the
colossal waste of the “Urban Renewal Project” in Imo state under
the Rochas Okorocha regime (2011-2019).
This view of all economic ventures as developmental is in tandem
with the Post-World War II era in Europe when the methods and tools
of mainstream economics were applied to development. This exclusive
economic interpretation of development was made popular by the
events that transformed the international community and the world
at large after World War II. These include the “birth” of the United
Nation System, the competition between the capitalist and socialist
ideologies popularly referred to as the Cold war and the subsequent
decolonization of the hitherto colonized entities and people of Africa
and Asia. These historical events heralded a new phase of
international relationships between Europe and America on the one
hand, Africa and Asia on the other, characterized by exploitation,
neocolonialism and imperialism, as will be discussed subsequently in
this chapter.

This mainstream economists approach to development as a state or

static condition operationalized through such statistical indices as
the GDP, GNP and GDP per capita has been challenged by radical
scholars and those outside the field of economics, who view
development as a multi-dimensional dynamic process. In opposition
to the mainstream economists view of development, the
Independent Commission on International Development Issues
(1980) cited by Anah and Ejiogu (2014:12) posits that“Statistical
measurement of growth exclude the crucial element of social
welfare, of individuals rights, of values not measureable by money.
Development is more than the passage from poor to rich, from a
traditional rural economy to a sophisticated urban one. It carries
with it, not only the idea of economic betterment but also of greater
human dignity, security, justice and equity”.

The Independent Commission on International Development Issues

was constituted in September 1977 to recommend ways of
surmounting the existing international political impasse in North-
South negotiations for global development. German Chancellor Willy
Brandt was asked to preside over the commission whose
membership represented the developed North and the
underdeveloped South equally. Africa was represented by Amir
Jamel, Tanzanian politician and diplomat,Layachi Yaker Algerian
Minister of trade and diplomat. The idea of establishing the
commission was announced in January 1977 by Robert McNamara,
the president of the World Bank.

The observed inadequacy of economic statistics as a measure of

development has led to a re-examination of the concept over the
years. In addition to such economic problems as unemployment and
the increasing gap between the rich and poor, such political issues
as the capability to peacefully transit from one democratically
elected government to another and the security of life and livelihood
within a given geographic entity have become key issues in
development discourse. In the same vein, the socio-cultural
environment within which individuals operate in plural societies; the
level of freedom in association and speech, transparency in
allocation and appropriation of scarce resources within a given
society have come within the purview of development studies. This
has made the concept and meaning of development more
anthropocentric. Development is thus seen as attending to the
socio-economic, political and cultural needs of the people.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) uses the

human development approach as an alternative focus which goes
beyond GDP as a leading objective and indicator of national
economic growth. The human development approach focuses on
people, opportunities and choices. The fundamental parts of the
human development approach which facilitate growth within the
society are represented in the diagram below.

Fig. 1: The Human Development Approach

Long and healthy
Directlyenhance life
Dimensions of s human abilities Knowle
Decent standard of dge
human living
development Participation in political and
community life
Creating conditions
for human Environmental
development Sustainability
Human security and
rights
Gender
Source: hdr.undp.org equality
Against the backdrop of increased focus on the needs of the people
in development discourse, development is defined as the capability
of people within a given geographic entity to harness their human
and natural resources through available technology in the best
interest of the people (Anah and Ejiogu 2014:2).

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

To mark the dawn of the 21st century, the United Nations
Organisation (UNO) organised the Millenium Summit from 6th to 8th
September 2000 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.
The aim of the summit was to discuss the role of the United Nations
in the 21st century. More than One hundred and fifty world leaders,
including Presidents, Prime Ministers, Crown princes and other eight
thousand delegates were in attendance. Following the ratification of
the United Nations Millenium Declaration, all the one hundred and
ninety one UN member states and other international organisations
resolved to help achieve the eight international development goals
known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the year
2015. The MDGs are:
1. To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
2. To achieve universal primary education.
3. To promote gender equality and empower women.
4. To reduce child mortality
5. To improve maternal health
6. To combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases.
7. To ensure environmental sustainability.
8. To develop a global partnership for development.

As part of her commitment to the actualization of these goals, the

group of eight (G8) (The Industrialized Countries of the world)
comprising France, Germany, Canada, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom,
United States and Russia made available funds to the World Bank,
the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the African Development
Bank (AfDB) in 2005 to cancel about fifty five billion dollars debt
owed by the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC). This was to
enable these poor countries channel their resources to alleviating
poverty and improve funding in health and education.
(www.undp.org).

At the end of 2015, evidence from the prevalent political situation in

Nigeria and the state of health services in the country indicated that
the targets of the MDGs were not met. Oleribe and Taylor –
Robinson (2016) attribute the dismal performance of Nigeria in
implementing the MDGs to such security challenges as the Boko
Haram insurgency in the North East and kidnapping in Southern
Nigeria. Other reasons include excessive bureaucracy, poor resource
management and several industrial actions by the health workers.
Sustainable Development
In response to increased awareness about the relationship between
economic development and the state of global ecosystem emphasis
in development policy has again been broadened to include protection
of the environment. This is more so now that a causative relationship
has been established between environmental degradation and the
destructive impact of climate change. The principal cause of the
climatic change is an observed increase in green house gas.
Greenhouse gas is a common nomenclature for a group of gases
comprising Methane, water vapour, Nitrous Oxide and Carbon
Dioxide generated from the combustion of fossil fuels, bush burning
and industrial emissions. It is believed that this build up allows the
sun’s rays to heat the earth, while infrared radiation makes the
atmosphere opaque to a counter balancing loss of heat.
Concentration of green house gas in the atmosphere result in
increased global temperatures generally referred to as global
warming.

It is against this background that the United Nation’s Organisation

convened a conference on the human environment in Stockholm
Sweden from June 5-16 1972. This was the UN’s first conference on
environmental issues. The conference can also be said to have
marked the turning point in linking global development policies to
the environment. In December 1983, the UN general assembly
established the World Commission on Environment and
Development. The commission was also known as the Bruntland
Commission in reference to the Commission Chairman Gro Harlem,
the first female Prime Minister of Norway (1981, 1986 – 1989, 1990
– 1996), the commission was given the following mandate:
i. To propose long term environmental strategies to achieving
sustainable development by the year 2000 and beyond;
ii. To recommend ways that the concern for the environment may
be translated into greater cooperation among developing
countries and between countries at different stages of
economical and social development and lead to the achievement
of common and mutually supportive objectives that take account
of the interrelationships between people, resources, environment
and development.
iii. To consider ways and means by which the international
community can deal more effectively with environment concerns
and.
iv. To help define shared perceptions of long term environmental
issues and the appropriate efforts needed to deal successfully
with the problems of protecting and enhancing the environment,
a long term agenda for action during the coming decades and
aspirational goals for the world community. (Chairman’s forward,
World Commission on Environment and Development: Our
Common future 1987).

The Commission’s report was submitted in April 1987. In the words

of the commission;
“Humanity has the ability to make development sustainable; to
ensure that it (sustainable development) meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of future generations to
meet their own”
(World Commission on Environment and Development: Our common
future 1987:43)
Ake (1990) has canvassed a broad approach to sustainable
development to include the availability of local management
capabilities and institutional framework to sustain development
projects especially in the underdeveloped countries. This is to
prevent the collapse of development projects initiated and managed
through foreign technical assistance on withdrawal of such foreign
assistance. In Nigeria, the Ajaokuta Steel Complex and the National
Fertilizer Company at Onne are typical examples.

In addition to the 1972 conference and 1983 commission, the UN

has also enhanced the understanding of the relationship between
environmental resilience and development and attempted to
address the increasing disparities between the developed and
underdeveloped countries through the following conferences:
a. United Nations Conference on Environment and Development
(UNCED) held in Rio de Janerio, Brazil in 1992.
b. The World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) held in
Johannesburg, South Africa in 2002.
c. The United Nations conference on sustainable development also
known as Earth Summit 2012 held from 13th to 22nd June 2012
in Rio de Janerio Brazil.
These conferences and many more international summits by the
United Nation culminated in the Sustainable Development Goals
replacing the MDGs in 2016. The sustainable development goals are
embedded in Resolution 70/1 of the United Nations General
Assembly with the rather ambitious caption “Transforming our
World: the 2030 agenda for sustainable development”. The agenda
is presented as a “plan of action for people, planet and prosperity”
(Sustainabledevelopment.un.org). The sustainable development
goals also known as the global goals are to build on the gains of the
MDGs. The SDGs are 17 goals for a better world by 2030. They are:
Goal 1:No Poverty – Economic growth must be inclusive to provide
sustainable jobs and promote equality.
Goal 2: Zero Hunger – Avoid throwing away food. Over one third
of the world’s food is wasted.
Goal 3: Good, health and well-being – Ensuring healthy lives
and promoting well being for all at all ages is essential to
sustainable development.
Goal 4: Quality Education – Obtaining a quality education is the
foundation to improving people’s lives and sustainable
development.
Goal 5: Gender Equality – Gender equality is not only a
fundamental human right, but necessary foundation for a peaceful,
prosperous and sustainable world.
Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation – Clean accessible water for
all is an essential part of the world we want to live in.
Goal 7: Affordable and clean energy – Energy is central to
nearly every major challenge and opportunity.
Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth – Sustainable
economic growth will require societies to create the conditions that
allow people to have quality jobs.
Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure – Investments
in infrastructure are crucial to achieving sustainable development.
Goal 10: Reduced inequalities – To reduce inequality, policies
should be universal in principle, paying attention to the needs of
disadvantaged and marginalized populations.
Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities – There need to
be a future in which cities provide opportunities for all with access to
basic services, energy, housing, transportation and more.
Goal 12: Responsible production and consumption
Goal 13: Climate Action – Climate change is a global challenge
that affects everyone, everywhere.
Goal 14: Life below water – Careful management of this essential
global resource is a key feature of a sustainable future.
Goal 15: Life on land – Sustainably manage forests, combat
desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, halt biodiversity
loss.
Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong institutions – Access to
justice for all, and building effective, accountable institutions at all
levels.
Goal 17: Partnerships for the goals – Revitalize the global
partnership for sustainable development.

UNDERDEVELOPMENT
Underdevelopment is more often than not misunderstood as the
absence of development. However, there is no society that has not
developed in one aspect of life or another. Underdevelopment
underscores the fact that development has been uneven within and
between hitherto known human societies. Rodney (1972:21)
attributes this disparity in the levels of development between
different human societies to the fact that “some groups have
advanced further by producing more and becoming more wealthy”.

Underdevelopment therefore serves as a tool not only to compare

these levels of development but also to critically explore the
historical antecedents leading to the favourable or unfavourable
conditions that manifest in lower or higher levels of development.
For instance, the fact that Europe and America are more developed
than Africa and Asia is supposed to make Africans and Asians
concerned about their situation. It is this concern that leads to a
comparison. Underdevelopment therefore attempts to explicate
these situations by highlighting the historical, socio-political and
economic relations between countries and regions of the world that
may have given one country or region undue advantage over the
other. This type of relationship is generally referred to as
exploitation.

Two historical facts, the transatlantic slave trade and colonization

highlight the level of exploitation in the relationship between Europe
and Africa. It is estimated that “12.5 million Africans were shipped
to the New World. 10.7 million survived the dreaded middle
passage, disembarking in North America, the Caribbean and South
America”. (Henry Louis Gates 2013 www.pbs.org). The transatlantic
slave trade is a trade in Africans forcefully taken into slavery and
sold to European traders from 1525 -1866. Though there are
arguments for and against the impact of wealth created from
slavery in financing the industrial revolution, Rodney (1972:6)
expresses the view that

Outstanding examples are provided in the persons of David and

Alexander Barclay, who were engaging in slave trade in 1756 and
who later used the loot to set up Barclays Bank ……. Then there was
James Watt, expressing eternal gratitude to the West Indian Slave
Owners who directly financed his famous steam engine and took it
from the drawing board to the factory.

The slave trade marked an exploitative relationship between Europe

and Africa which developed Europe and underdeveloped Africa. This
view is buttressed by Karl Marx’s observation that “the turning of
Africa into a warren for the commercial hunting of black-skins,
signaled the rosy dawn of the era of capitalist production (Capital-
critique of Political Economy 1867).

Colonization is essentially the act of forcefully settling and

establishing control over the indigenous people in a particular
geographic entity. It also entails the appropriation of the human and
natural resources of the indigenous people by the colonizers.
Colonization of Nigeria was essentially a capitalist venture aimed at
maximizing profit. Apart from altering the history, social and
economic life of the various nationalities that were forcefully united
as Nigeria, the colonial period was characterized by the plunder of
enormous human and natural resources in Nigeria. Nnoli (1978:57-
58) captures the colonial exploitative scenario thus:

“New cash crops, groundnuts, cocoa, rubber and cotton were

introduced. In 1900, palm products constituted from 80 percent to
90 percent of the total export. But by 1929, although its volume had
trebled, it accounted for only 47 percent of the total export;
groundnut products accounted for 15 percent and cocoa for 30
percent of exports. Tin deposits on the Bauchi plateau were
exploited by British mining concern, while Coal resources at Enugu
were discovered and exploited”.

The profit made from the exploitation of these resources were

repatriated to develop Britain while under-developing Nigeria. The
fact that colonization and slave trade were used as examples should
not be misconstrued to mean that under-development of Nigeria
ended with colonization and slave trade. Rather, underdevelopment
is as dynamic in nature as development. New forms of
underdevelopment have replaced earlier forms. Multinational
corporations, such international financial institutions as the World Bank
and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and even the United
Nations Organisation are implicated in these new forms of
underdevelopment through neo-colonialism and imperialism.

Theories of Development
Theories are tested propositions and/ or suppositions, coherent
systems of ideas used to explicate particular phenomena. These
ideas are based on general principles that may be independent of
the phenomena being explained. Theories of development are
building blocks that enhance the understanding of the complex
phenomenon known as development.

1. Modernization Theory:
The starting point for modernization theory is the dichotomous
categorization of human societies as either “modern” or
“traditional”. The developed industrialized countries of Europe and
America belong to the “modern” category while the under-
developed, non-industrialized countries of Africa, Asia and Latin
America remain “traditional”. Modernization theorists are of the
view that cultural and economic barriers have kept the traditional
societies backward. Modernization therefore refers to a
transformation from “traditional” to “Modern” by these backward
societies of Africa, Asia and Latin America.Deriving mostly from
Talcott Parsons’ pattern variables, traditional societies are said to be
weighed down by negative cultural attributes. Thus, ascription
rather than achievement is the basis for allocation of scarce means.

In the same vein, relationships are diffuse in traditional societies,

that is, people enter into relationships with others to satisfy a large
range of needs as against specific relationships in modern societies
that satisfy particular needs. In traditional societies, gratification is
immediate while in modern societies, gratification is deferred, like
saving money for future investment. Also, the traditional societies
are alleged to have a low level of division of labour, low productivity
and an absence of political institutions to routinize political action.

These catalogues of negative attributes are held responsible for the

absence of development in the traditional societies. Modernization
refers to the attempts or efforts by these traditional societies to
acquire the modern attributes that are supposed to transform them
to modern. The industrialized countries of Europe and America who
have attained the transition to “modern” are expected to assist the
“traditional” societies in the area of infrastructure and industries.
Offiong (1980:23-24) is of the view that “Modernization is therefore
seen as a total transformation of traditional or pre-modern societies
into “modern” societies with the attendant social organization and
production technologies that match the politically stable
economically prosperous societies of Europe and America”.

Modernization theory is criticised as being Eurocentric. The theory

uses European societies as the yardstick to measure development.
Secondly, modernization theory is tautologically in the sense that it
does not identify the sources of poverty in the “traditional”
societies, rather the theory claims that the “traditional” societies are
backward because they have backward attitudes. Thirdly, the
expectation that the industrial or “modern” societies will assist the
“traditional” societies is wishful. Historically, the relationship
between the former and the latter has been characterized by
exploitation rather than cooperation.
2. Dependency Theory
Also known as dependencia due to its Latin America origin, the
dependency theory has its origin in the conscious efforts of Latin
American radical scholars to repudiate the claims made by the
modernization theorists. Prominent among the dependency theorists
are Raul Prebisch, Andre Gunder, Frank and Hans Singer.
Dependency theory is woven around the belief that the political
economy of the globe divides it into two invariably antagonistic
groups, that is, the core and the periphery. While the core exerts a
lot of influence on the periphery in such areas as diplomacy, trade
relationships and international finance, this influence has over the
years led to the whittling of the periphery countries control of their
raw material exports and ability to purchase the core countries’
manufactured goods.

The dependency theorists contend that this asymmetric relationship

is the cause of underdevelopment and dependency in the periphery
countries while bringing development to the core countries. The
core countries are the industrial, rich and developed countries of the
world such as the United States of America, Britain Germany and
Japan. The periphery countries are the mostly agrarian, poor and
underdeveloped countries of the world such as Nigeria, Venezuela,
India and Ethiopia. The dependency theory has been criticized for
not providing feasible solution to the underdevelopment problem in
the third world.

Other critics see dependency theory as containing more rhetorics

than testable propositions. According to Valenzuela and Valenzueala
“Many aspects of dependency and particularly the linkages between
external phenomena and internal class and power relations are
unclear and need to be studied with more precision and care”.
(Anah and Ejiogu 2014:30).

3. The World Systems Theory

This theory is associated with Immanuel Wallerstein, an American
sociologist who published “The Rise and Future Demise of the World
Capitalist System: Concepts for Comparative Analysis’ in 1974. The
thrust of the publication is on the unequal opportunities between
and among the countries of the world and how the differential
opportunities have impacted on development in these countries and
the world at large. World systems theory is to a large extent an
adaptation of the dependency theory which became popular in the
1970s as a radical alternative to modernisation’s assumption of
evolutionary development on the basis of transition from
“traditional” to “modern” societies.

The world systems refer to a world-economy whose basis presently

is capitalist production. Wallerstein views the world system as a
social system with boundaries, structures, member groups, rules of
legitimation and coherence. The world system is characterized by
inter-regional and transnational division of labour in which the
production and exchange of basic goods and raw materials is
necessary for the everyday life of its inhabitants. This division of
labour culminates in the emergence of three interdependent
regions: the core, semi-periphery and periphery regions.

Figure 2: World System Theory Model

High Profit consumption goods

Core Semi Periphery

Periphery

Cheap labour and Raw materials

Source: worldsytemconjectures.blogspots.com

While the core countries are involved in capital intensive production

backed by high technology, the periphery countries are involved in
the primary production of raw materials. The low technology base of
these periphery countries do not allow them to add value to these
raw materials. Thus, both the high profit consumption goods
produced by the core and the cheap labour and raw materials that
flow from the periphery countries are bought and sold at prices
largely determined by the core countries.
Semi-periphery countries are in between the core and periphery in
this relationship which Wallerstein refers to as unequal exchange.
The semi periphery countries have a mix of the production activities
and trade relationship that exist in the core and periphery. The
unequal exchange is sustained by the power hierarchy or structure
inherent in the world system, but particularly between core and
periphery regions. Because technology is a key factor in production,
it plays an important role in determining the positioning of a region
as core or periphery of the capitalist system. The core region
therefore exert hegemonic control, dominate and exploit the weak,
poor, periphery enclaves. This structural defect in global capitalism
constrains the periphery countries to experience the type of
development that reproduces their subordination.

However, the world system is not a closed system. It is dynamic.

Improvement in technology or revolutionary discovery in transport
technology or any other aspect of technology have been known to
make countries gain or lose their core, semi-periphery and periphery
positions over time.

Wallerstein identified two types of traps in world system research.

One is the nomothetic trap. Here researchers assume that world
systems can be compared. The other is the idiographic trap. In this
case researchers imagine the whole world as a single system.
However in the recent past a capitalist world economy has emerged.
It encompasses the entire globe but there is nothing else.

This is a new situation which started at the end of the 19 th century.

This is the first time in human history that there is only one
historical system on the planet at a given time. Wallerstein
interprets this as the closing acts of capitalism. The end of the
modern world system. (William 2013: 202-210).