The Institutional Development of Political Science in Nigeria: Trends, Problems and Prospects
| Author | L. Adele Jinadu |
| Published date | 01 January 1987 |
| Date | 01 January 1987 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/019251218700800105 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
59-
The
Institutional
Development
of
Political
Science
in
Nigeria:
Trends,
Problems
and
Prospects
L.
ADELE JINADU
ABSTRACT.
Political
science
in
Nigeria
has
developed
within
contextual
parameters
provided
by
(a)
the
multinational
character
of
political
science,
with
particular
reference
to
the
hegemonic
role
of
the
US
in
its
global
diffusion;
(b)
the
statist
structure
of
Nigeria’s
political
economy;
and
(c)
the
logic
of
colonial
nationalism.
In
explaining
the
character
of
Nigerian
political
science
within
these
historically
determined
contexts,
the
author
proceeds
within
a
theoretical
framework
which
links
the
development
of
the
discipline
to
the
asymmetrical
nature
of
international
social
formations,
in
the
division
between
hegemonic
or
centre
societies
and
dependent
or
peripheral
ones.
But
the
author
also
focuses
on
how
factors
internal
to
political
science
as
a
vocation
in
Nigeria
have
conditioned
its
development
and
have
interacted
with
factors
external
to
it.
The
specific
developmental
and
institutional
forms
assumed
by
political
science
in
Nigeria’s
higher
education
system
must
be viewed
in
the
context
of
the
historical
processes
unleashed
by
the
imperialist
expansion
of
capitalism
on
a
world
scale.
Among
the
consequences
of
such
an
expansion,
in
the
context
of
which
the
development
of
Nigerian
political
science
must
be
discussed,
is
the
creation
of
a
world
system
characterized
by
relations
of
unequal
or
asymmetrical
exchange,
or
exploitation
and
dependency
between
hegemonic
(centre)
societies
and
dependent
(peripheral)
ones.
It
is
within
this
broad
theoretical
perspective
that
this
article
isolates
three
salient,
structurally
determined
and
historical
factors
which
have
had
a
conditioning
effect
on
the
institutional
development
of
Nigerian
political
science.
These
are:
the
multinational
character
of
political
science,
especially
the
hegemonic
role
of
the
US
in
its
diffusion;
the
highly
statist
structure
of
Nigeria’s
colonial
and
postcolonial
political
economy;
and,
the
logic
of
colonial
nationalism.
These
three
factors
provide
the
environment
within
which
to
situate
Nigerian
political
science
and
are,
in
that
sense,
external
to
it.
But
the
perspective
adopted
here
assumes
no
strict
separation
between
factors
external
and
internal
to
political
science
in
its
development.
Indeed,
it
views
the
relationship
between
Nigerian
political
science
and
its
environment
as
dialectical,
one
in
which
both
act
upon
and
affect
each
other.
In
short,
this
article
tries
to
highlight
how
factors
external
and
internal
to
the
discipline
have
conditioned
its
development.
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