The main focus of this chapter has been the effect and impact of the Nigerian civil war on the economic, social and political aspects in the country. The civil war which bedeviled the country from 1967-1970 brought about the underdevelopment of Nigeria as a country. From the end of the war to this present day, Nigeria have not been able to overcome the series of crises and problem which has faced it. Nigeria has been wallowing from one crises to the other, from economic crisis which an example of it in Nigeria is the Nigeria economic recession to the political crisis and then the social crisis which is associated with ethnic crises, for example, the Boko Haram of the north invading other states of the country, southern and eastern states to be precise causing terror and harm to the people23.
The first conclusions made in regard to the economic impact or effect of the Nigerian civil war could be seen in the economic crises which have bedevilled the country’s economy starting from the 1970, with the discovery of oil in Massive quantity in Nigeria. Other sectors of the Nigerian economy were neglected such as the agricultural sector and the industrial sector. Oil became the main source of revenue in Nigeria. With other sectors of the Nigerians economy being neglected and abandoned and oil is the main source of income and revenue for the country. This period was characterized by the extravagancy, extravagant spending, investing the money of expansion; with the increase in the government embarking on rapid wealth, on expanding distributives and squandering of the wealth instead of productive capacity. Also, Nigeria was plunged into debt that is the debt crisis. With the skyrocketing of the petroleum price, rising from $3.80 a barrel in Oct 1973 to $14.70 by January 1974 and remained higher most of the remainder of the 1970s, which became period oil boom in Nigeria. According to Todaro and Smith, these seeds of the 1980s debt crisis in the developing countries including Nigeria were sown in 1974-1979 period. When there was a virtual explosion in international landing precipitated by the first major OPEC oil price increase24.
However, this was the starting point of the economic crisis that bedeviled the country up till this present day. The decrease in the price of petroleum which has become the most source of national wealth has affected the country body and is still causing more havoc. This can be solved with the feeding of the agricultural and industrial sector of the economy with enough productive concern. Also the exportation of the Nigerian raw materials at low prices and the subsequent importation of finished goods from European countries also had a negative impact on the Nigeria economy.
