CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY AND THE INFLOW OF FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENTS: THE NIGERIAN EXPERIENCE
CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY AND THE INFLOW OF FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENTS: THE NIGERIAN EXPERIENCE

Summary/Abstract: Does any relationship in both theory and practice exist between political institutions and economic performance? In other words, do political institutions enhance economic performance in terms of an economy being able to steadily and permanently attract and stimulate foreign direct investments (FDI)? How can the relationship, in the standard version of social science research, be measured and determined? What are the local varieties and peculiarities that tend to condition how political institutions encourage and stimulate foreign direct investments (FDI)? To what extent do the variations and peculiarities impact on the policies and initiatives that are aimed at the attraction and stimulation of FDI? To what extent does the attendant result help in the analysis of the volume and sectoral allocation of FDI? How have the results influenced and impacted the contrasting perspectives in literature? And what will the study of Nigeria add to the debate as it ensues? Relying on data from secondary sources, in particular the Reports of the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Bureau of Statistics and newspapers, the study examines the volume and sectoral allocation of FDI in Nigeria with the return to constitutional democracy between 1999 and 2012. The aim is to discover how the Nigerian environment of democracy can influence the existing debate on the affinity of FDI to democracy. The study finds out that there were influxes of FDI into the Nigerian economy only on paper. The policy implication is therefore that the hope of a greater Nigeria rests on the determination of Nigerians to use its resources to address the fundamental problems of the Nigerian economy rather than deliberately seeking to attract and stimulate FDI.

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