THE IMPACT OF OIL RESOURCE MISMANAGEMENT (1958-1992) ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA: LESSONS FROM THE PAST AND PATHS FOR THE FUTURE

Nigeria’s oil mismanagement from 1958 to 1992 is analysed in this study that critically studies these events as having laid the foundation for the country’s structural weaknesses, economic vices of which still obtain today. While the resource curse, governance failures, and economic dependency have been widely debated in existing literature, the studies also do not make a systematic attempt to link present Nigeria’s challenges to past oil governance failures. This study bridges that gap by exploring how the colonial era contracts, corruption and oil booms based on legal tender that resulted in reckless spending during oil booms undermined the economic foundations of Nigeria. A historical analytical approach was used to assess patterns of mismanagement, policy inconsistency, and a failure of governance based on data from archival government reports, economic analyses, and scholarly works. The results shed light on Nigeria’s oil wealth being a cause of patronage politics, fiscal recklessness, and non-diversification of the economy, which made the country vulnerable to external price shocks as well as institutional decay. This research supports Rentier State Theory, which is confirmed through the finding that reliance on oil revenues shortened state accountability, encouraged corruption, and caused economic stagnation in Nigeria. It contributes to policy studies by suggesting historically grounded policy prescriptions for sustainable resource governance, economic diversification, institutional reform, and reversing Nigeria’s oil-dependent development crisis.