This paper re-engages in the post -colonial debate using a post -development theoretical framework to interrogate the post-colonial Nigeria in relation to economic development. It argues that the colonial state contrived an incongruous, entity called Nigeria and in particular, a derisive developmentalism. A conceptualization of some of the salient issues associated with these complexities in the post-colonial Nigeria is revisited and argued as posing enormous challenges to the future of

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... s development notably persistent ethno-religious crisis, perverse rise in ethnic minority agitation and struggle for the control of the oil economy in the Niger Delta, the Boko Haram insurgency and terrorism in the northeast, structural inequality, fiscal federalism, census figure, public corruption etc. The paper integrates Nigeria's colonial history in the larger picture of her political and economic (under)development and in the process suggests new explanation for underdevelopment and structural inequality in Nigeria linked to colonial legacy and makes some policy recommendations.