A historiographical review of contending perspectives on the establishment of marketing boards in colonial Nigeria

Abstract

The paper analyses the contending debates on the establishment of marketing boards in colonial Nigeria. It analyses their operations within the purview of colonialist and nationalist perspectives. The paper contends that the British established the boards to protect its imperial and economic interests rather than the price stabilization policy they were primarily created for. It submits that the marketing boards were monopoly institutions the British used to cushion the internal contradictions in its post-Second World War economy. It argues that the paltry infrastructural facilities provided by the British administration were not meant to stimulate development but accidental fallouts of colonialism