The Millennium Development Goals and Nigeria’s Development: A Preliminary Insight
Egwaikhide Christian Imoudu

Abstract
This paper surveys trends that influence the slow development of Nigeria. The accompanying deterioration in the people’s well-being lends credence to the idea that both globalization and domestic agents abort Nigeria’s economic recovery programmes and hence poverty alleviation efforts. Clearly, the Nigerian economy is in crisis and that situation requires a crisis response, which has been expressed in the MDGs. The vision of this development strategy is of a prosperous Nigeria that is pro-people in its outlook, manages its affairs transparently and is freed of obstacles to development. Therefore, the MDGs offer a promise to Nigeria and they are also a framework around which the international community should concrete its efforts for the country’s development. By employing the political economy approach and the dependency paradigm, we argue that poverty in Nigeria will not go away when the people are excluded from development processes and the country peripherally integrated with the global economy. Happily though, the awareness is growing among Nigerians that determination and ability to get moving is the hallmark of progress. By challenging the architecture of its underdevelopment and dependence, the regeneration of Nigeria could hopefully be effected through the achievement of the MDGs.

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