The Nigerian Century: How Africa’s Most Populous Country Can Fulfill Its Destiny

Project Expert

Douglas Dillon Senior Fellow for Africa Studies

Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country and has the potential to be, in partnership with the United States and other western allies, the anchor of economic transformation and democratic stability in Africa. Liberating Nigeria’s immense potential is both an intellectual and policy challenge. Intellectually, it means being willing to ask a different set of questions and looking for inspiration and guidance from countries and societies that, overcoming social decomposition, have become politically stable and economically viable. Here, the extensive literature on democratic breakdown is suggestive. Policy wise, it means being willing to revisit settled approaches to development assistance and putting such intangibles as norms and virtue at the center of discussion. The grimness of the subject matter notwithstanding, the project is motivated and propelled by optimism that dire human situations are ultimately vulnerable to accurate intellectual diagnoses and well-judged policy interventions. The project will produce a book that addresses the question of how Nigeria, a country evidently in the throes of social anomie, can be made whole again.