Deindustrialization, insecurity and demise of night economy: Retrospection on Nigerian underdevelopment

Abstract

Abstract

Nigerian faces complex and mounting challenges of underdevelopment. However, this challenge could not have been so intimidating if negative socioeconomic, political and technological forces have also not combined to ensure the demise of her once bolstering ‘night economy’. Contrary to the experience in the 70s when Nigerians worked and were moving 24 hours daily, the crowding out of ‘night economy’ and the growing culture of idleness have combined to dealt a great blow to the chances of Nigerian becoming a comparatively developed nation as some of the Asian tigers. With a retrospective case study of what then used to be Ikeja Industrial Estate, the two most destructive forces that have combined to retard Nigeria’s progress are the trajectories of deindustrialization and demise of night economy both of which are serendipities of economic policy summersault that happened in the mid-80, to which subsequent heightened prevalence of insecurity have added the nodal norm of near complete social disorder. This paper, being product intuitive personal insights and area-specific field observation, argues that the only way to rapidly move Nigeria out of the doldrums of pervasive underdevelopment is to fast-track Nigerians back to work starting with rapid and massive facilitation of primary productive engagement. Towards achieving this, it recommends that government must simultaneously adopt pragmatic economic strategies of fiscal discipline, conspicuous interventionist posture to accelerate aggressive diversification, reindustrialization, state-enforced import substitution, selective outward orientation, and revival of her demised night economy.

Keywords: Deindustralization, night economy, Nigeria