The leadership in many African countries, with their ethnic diversities, is characterised by ethnic bias and favouritism, and citizens are thus treated unequally in many respects, particularly when it comes to national resource allocation and political representation. This breeds resentment and creates conditions for an ultimate rejection of the state by the frustrated and politically conscious masses. It is also tantamount to corruption, weakening the ability of the state to function efficiently, and is therefore anti-developmental. This paper argues that the socio-economic crises in many African countries are aggravated by practices of ethnic bias and favouritism that have consistently violated the principle of the impersonality of economic agents, caused resentment among the marginalised ethnic groups, fuelled conflicts and retarded development on the continent. It is recommended that a strong and credible judicial body, with powers to investigate crimes against citizens and prosecute and punish offenders, be established by the African Union.Ethnicity, ethnic bias, favouritism, human rights, corruption,

Trade is crucial for economic growth, with exports providing earnings to finance imports. Trade also promotes investments and knowledge transfer. Trading countries exploit their comparative advantages to promote self-sufficiency, which is obviously better than dependence on foreign aid, whether low interest-bearing loans or transfer payments. All aid comes with some kind of conditionality attached, amounting to substantial burdens that often outweigh possible benefits. Donors often replace the administrative machinery of recipient governments, undermining their sovereignty and autonomy. These governments then struggle to extricate themselves from implied commitments to donors and prevent donor governments interfering in their domestic affairs. This paper looks at Africa's poor trade performance, arguing that among the consequences are the continent's continuing dependence on foreign aid and the accompanying burdensome negative sentiments from the rest of the world. It recommends that the new African programme New Partnership for Africa's Development be developed to a full economic integration to expand the regional markets.

Africa performs poorly in the global economy. The continent lacks investments, jobs, real output, and basic social services. Aggravating the poor performance is poor management. This paper argues that the establishment of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) to grapple with Africa's economic problems makes sense but only if necessary policies are properly implemented. It argues that Africa should pursue interest politics through NEPAD as an economic integration. On the issue of financing the budget, which has in the past been a major constraint to OAU-initiated projects, this paper strongly recommends that it should be made mandatory that all multinational companies operating in all NEPAD member countries pay a certain percentage of their earnings into the NEPAD budget.Re´sume´: La performance de l'Afrique dans l'e´conomie mondiale est me´diocre. Le continent manque d'investissements, d'emplois, de production re´elle et de services sociaux de base. La mauvaise gestion vient aggraver cette performance me´diocre. L'article estime que la cre´ation du NEPAD pour s'attaquer aux proble`mes e´conomiques de l'Afrique sera une bonne initiative, si et seulement si les politiques ne´cessaires sont mises en oeuvre de manie`re satisfaisante. Il avance que l'Afrique devrait poursuivre une politique d'inte´reˆt dans le cadre du NEPAD en tant qu'outil d'inte´gration e´conomique. En ce qui concerne le financement du budget qui, par le passe´, a constitue´un des obstacles majeurs a`la re´alisation des projets initie´s par l'OUA, l'article recommande vivement que l'on oblige toutes les socie´te´s multinationales ope´rant dans les pays membres du NEPAD a`verser un certain pourcentage de leurs be´ne´fices au budget du NEPAD.

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The Nigerian agricultural export sector has been through three different development phases: transition, peak, and de-agriculturalisation. Blending simple international trade theory with actual facts, this study supports the notion that production during the transition phase enjoyed a classical "vent for surplus" type of growth, involving increased utilisation of available factor inputs, which in turn produced increased per capita income. Coupled with the classical factors were several technological packages introduced to farmers in later years. These led to the attainment of output peaks mainly in the 1950s and 1960s. Finally. the study argues that the foundation for de-agriculturalisation was already laid during the peak phase when farmers were taxed heavily, and several agricultural projects were biased against them.