Deconstructing the Nigerian State for Global Capitalism: Labour and Welfare Issues

Abstract

At independence the Nigerian State was confronted with the twin problems of economic development and the provision of and guarantee of the welfare of her citizens. Thestate chose the part of a ‘pseudo capitalist" state with a strong welfare bent hence her  strong interventionist role in the economy through the establishment of public enterprises and parastatals in addressing its critical development problems. The paper examines the point at which the Nigerian State had to be deconstructed in order to eliminate the anti-capitalist tendencies such as a huge work force and the capacity to intervene in the economy on the side of the citizenry. From published sources, the pa per, finds that reform strategies of privatization, deregulation and public sector down-sizing or right sizing measures were used to deconstruct the State for capitalist interest with loud implications for labour and social welfare. Public sector reforms may have the superficial motive of improving efficiency, but its ulterior motive of constraining organized labour from challenging the States deleterious economic policies has implication for undermining growth through waste of human capital. For purposes of effi cieney and economic growth, reforms ought to be sequential and in tandem with productivity through the creation of jobs as opposed to the rapidity with which they are being destroyed.