ABSTRACT
Nigeria is a developing country desperate to join the ranks of the developed world. About thirteen (13) different regimes including the Military, have ruled over the country since Independence in 1960. However, the planning and management of the economy has been defective. Indeed, by 2014, the Nigerian economy slid into a recession. It will seem that this poor track record is due to poor understanding of the socio-economic system and defective planning. This work presents an alternative paradigm to help plan, manage and control the economy. It attempts to answer the festering question, “what shall we do or what should we have done to get out of the quagmire in which the economy finds itself?” A combination of approaches including econometrics, input-output analysis and linear programming, under the pseudonym of economic systems engineering, were brought to bear on the contemporary problems of the Nigerian economy. Our model predicted the recession of 2014 and it was found that to reverse the recession, in 2015 it would have been necessary to increase the prime lending rate by 1.7% and systematically adjust it to 29.42% by 2018 in order to attract foreign investors who have the technology the economy needed so badly. The country should also have borrowed additional $30.5billion in 2015 and increase it to $56.4 billion by 2018 in order to develop infrastructure, agriculture, industry and services. While taxation and money supply did not feature as incremental options, the country should still be promoting oil export. Special attention should have been given to promote non-oil exports in 2016 It is recommended that Nigerian statistical agencies should endeavor to be up to date with statistical data and Nigeria should return to development planning using rational or scientific planning
methods, a paradigm that has not occurred for about thirty (30) years.