Thesis Abstract

The study sets out to interrogate the relationship between debt cancellation and economic reform policies in Nigeria under President Obasanjo‘s administration. The aim of the research was to provide a framework that explains the effects of debt relief on Nigeria’s economic development. The theory of Marxist Political Economy Paradigm was adopted as the analytical framework to demonstrate that Nigeria has followed a developmental strategy dictated by the interest of the imperialists and their local allies among the indigenous population. The method of data collection used was the secondary sources of data. Three hypothesis tested were Nigerian government‘s demand for debt cancellation gave rise to the economic reform conditionality; the involvement of World Bank technocrats in President Obasanjo’s deregulation programme influenced the 2005 Paris Club debt cancellation conditionality for Nigeria, and, the economic reform policies of Paris Club of creditor nations pressurized the Nigerian government to adopt privatization of public enterprises. The findings of the study revealed that Nigerian government’s political and economic profile necessitated the conditionality for the adoption of economic reform policies of the Paris Club. Against the background of debt relief granted to Nigeria, the study recommends that a law should be made to avoid a relapse to the past and also to commit all the tiers of governments to a set of rules for efficient economic management in terms of planning, as well as control and monitoring of public borrowing and expenditure.

Thesis Overview