Abstract
The over-reliance on trade in primary commodities has stymied Nigeria’s economic development. Consequently, poverty and unemployment have become the major recurring themes in contemporary Nigeria’s development history. This study historicises Nigeria’s development crisis through the lens of the four major development paradigms and finds its roots in the development policies that characterised her existential trajectories since the colonial economy. It concludes, therefore, that resolving Nigeria’s development crisis requires a radical rethinking of the capitalist development models prescribed by Western institutions as they have only (and will only) entrenched dependence on the West and continue to escalate Nigeria’s development crisis. It recommends that the resolution of her development crisis requires an African model of social transformation that is capable of restoring Nigeria to the self-sufficiency that predates her colonial encounter with the capitalist West and the adoption of the Infant Industry Protection strategy as a way out of current development crisis.