“Dependency and Underdevelopment of Nigerian economy” was developed to examine the state of Nigeria’s political and economic underdevelopment, in the course of her dependence on the Western Capitalist World. ‘’My people have been successfully managing their political system before the advent of the whites in Africa, and even the presence of whites brought distortion to the African political and economic system’’ (Kwame Nkruma, 1957). Prior to the incursion of the British in Nigeria, the country was no doubt with the capacity of organized institutions which were put in place for smooth governance. Obviously, most of these political systems were independent of one another, and were self-reliant. Historically, a lot of facts were gathered and supported by scholars that African societies, before the coming of the whites were not underdeveloped because they were able to develop within their capacity based on their agricultural economy. “Dependency and underdevelopment of Africa Nigeria inclusive, is unveiled by successive phenomena such as slave trade, capitalism, colonialism, imperialism and neo-colonialism. It should be noted, however, that the countries that are depending on the rest are mostly poor countries of the third world, Nigeria is a typical poor third world country and underdeveloped that depends on the western world for decision and implementation of economic development of the west to her own detriment. In the light of the consideration therefore, this research work is designed to identify the historical forces which led to Nigeria’s dependency and underdevelopment. It is also the aim of the study to examine the relationship of the western economies and the third world economies, and to study the crucial concepts that are closely related to the problems of dependency and underdevelopment. Specifically, it will investigate the major causes of political and economic dependency in Nigeria, cum the impacts or the roles of the Nigerian elites in the course of Nigerian dependency and underdevelopment. Thus, also fashion out pragmatic hypotheses that would address the major menace, roles, and impacts of multinationals on the economic dependency and underdevelopment of Nigerian State.

Keywords: Dependency, Nigerian Economy, Underdevelopment