Vision and Policy in Nigerian Economics

The Legacy of Pius Okigbo

This is a festschrift for Pius Okigbo, a foremost economist, public intellectual and trailblazer of Nigeria’s development in the immediate aftermath of colonial rule.

Okigbo was the first African recipient of a doctoral degree from Northwestern University in the US, the first ‘indigenous’ development officer and economic advisor to the federal government, the first Nigerian Ambassador to the European Economic Community, and the first economic advisor to the as-was Biafran Government. He forged many associations with progressive leaders of developing countries in the South, notably with Julius Nyerere. He was a brother of the distinguished Nigeria poet, Christopher Okigbo. Okigbo’s subjects of enquiry and ideas about the future of Nigeria are deeply relevant today, and provide the impetus for the debates and analyses presented in this book.

The work is comprised of twelve chapters and organised into four sections: Memoirs and Tributes; Okigbo and the Evolution of the Nigerian State; Economic Policy and Public Finance in Nigeria and Africa; and Intellectuals, Public Leadership and Civil Society. Evaluating Okigbo’s contribution to international and national economic theory, and drawing on his legacy, the papers address subjects such as: the evolution of the Nigerian State; the appropriate place of the State in economic development in Nigeria and on the African continent more widely; the role of civil society in economic planning and good governance; fiscal federalism; the principles of derivation; regional integration; and the probity and viability of public institutions.

This book is published in association with the Centre for Social Science Research and Development in Nigeria.