Public Administration Theory and the Developmental State in Sub-Saharan Africa: Original Lessons from Nigeria

This dissertation contributes an original theoretical framework for analysing developmental state formation in Sub-Saharan Africa, using Nigeria's contested developmental state trajectory from 1970 to the present as the primary empirical anchor. The classical developmental state literature, grounded in the East Asian experiences of South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan, has generated fierce debate about its applicability in African governance contexts. This dissertation challenges both uncritical adoption and wholesale rejection of the developmental state paradigm, proposing instead the African Conditional Developmental State (ACDS) framework as an original theoretical contribution. The methodology combines systematic review of 220 peer-reviewed developmental state studies in Africa, comparative historical analysis of Nigeria, Rwanda, and Botswana as three divergent African governance trajectories, and elite oral history research involving 65 in-depth interviews with former Nigerian heads of state, senior technocrats, and development economists. Comparative historical analysis and ideational process tracing provide the primary methodological tools. Grounded in Evans's Embedded Autonomy, Kohli's State Formation Theory, and Mkandawire's critique of the developmental state concept in Africa, the ACDS framework proposes five original conditions for developmental state emergence in African contexts: productive rent management, bureaucratic-business-civil society synergy, sequenced institutional capacity building, leadership vision continuity, and regional security stability. Nigeria is analysed as a failed developmental state trajectory, with the ACDS framework explaining why conditions for developmental state emergence were repeatedly present but structurally undermined. Keywords: developmental state, Sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria, public administration theory, governance.