Nigeria’s Oilboom Period (1973-1983): Was Agriculture Really Neglected?

Over the years several authors have attributed the decline in Nigerian agricultural production to the neglect of the agricultural sector that resulted from the discovery of crude oil, what is known as the oilboom factor. This paper set out to find answer to the question: was agriculture really neglected as a result of the oilboom? The study took a historical per- spective to trace the path of capital expenditure allocations to the agricultural sector in Nigeria. Secondary data on planned capital expenditure allocation to the agriculture sector before and during the oilboom period; and the budget estimates of capital expenditure allocations to the Agriculture, Water Resources, Health, Education and Defence sectors in Nigeria during the oil boom period 1977-1983 were sourced and used. Graphic descriptive statistics and the one-way analysis of variance technique were used to achieve the objectives of the study. The Tukey's Multiple Comparison method w as employed to determine which mean(s) differ, in both cases, in the one-way analysis of variance tests conducted. The empirical findings of the study indicate significant increase in the quantity of capital expenditure allocation to the agriculture sector during the oilboom period; and that more capital expenditure was allocated to the agriculture sector than was allocated to either of Health, Education or Defence sectors in Nigeria during the oilboom period. Thus, it concluded that the decline in agricultural production in Nigeria was, statistically, not attributable to the neglect of the agricultural sector resulting from oil boom. The reason could be as a manifestation of Dutch Disease, Natural Resource Curse, Rent Seeking phenomenom, or something else.