The Role of the State and Transnational Corporations in Achieving Sustainable Development in Nigeria

Abstract

This paper examines the close co­operation between African rentier states and the capitalist states of the global North in destroying the envi­ronment for resource exploitation in the global South, especially in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It is interesting to note that the United Nations Millennium Devel­opment Goals (MDGs) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) regimes ended and were born simultaneously in December 2015. Similar to the MDGs regime, MDG 7 (the environment) was treated casually in the context of Africa. There is the likelihood that a similar fate awaits SDG 15 (Life on Land) in Africa. With the help of its Transnational Cor­porations (TNCs) and the cooperation of resource-rich rentier states in Africa, states of the global North exploit natu­ral resources in Africa. Worryingly, or­ganisations like the United Nations De­velopment Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Environment Programme are both indifferent to these issues. As a result, the entire SDGs regime, like its predecessor, is being implemented in a Janus-faced manner. The global South, particularly Africa, has been treated with indifference while the states of the global North have worked diligently together to accomplish a significant number of SDGs goals in the global North. Therefore, in order to achieve the SDGs, resource ex­ploitation and profit calculations—rather than the people and their environment in Africa—are prioritised. The paper used secondary sources of information. It ad­opted the World-System Theory as its the­oretical framework. It found that SDGS15 remains utopian in sub-Saharan Africa insofar as the unbridled desire for natu­ral and forest resources by states of the global North and their allies, as exploit­ed by African rentier states and TNCs, is not curbed. The paper concludes that for states in SSA to meet the targets of SDG I5, the excessive use of forests and oth­er natural resources, as demonstrated by states of the global North, must be curbed.