Comparison between Malaysia, Kenya and Nigeria in their Economic Development

Malaysia, Kenya and Nigeria are among the many countries that Great Britain had colonized. Malaysia gained its independence from Britain on 1957. Three years later, Nigeria gained its independence on 1960. Then another three years after, Kenya gained its independence on 1963. But based on their GNI per capita, Malaysia is the highest then Kenya and lastly Nigeria. So, we could not say that when one country gained its independence earlier than the other, that country is better than the other for it has already gained experience in handling government, economic and foreign affairs. We could deduce from what happened between Kenya and Nigeria. Kenya gained its independence later than Nigeria but Kenya is better than Nigeria.

One factor why Nigeria is less developed compared to the other two countries is that Nigeria has 250 ethnic groups. Malaysia has also ethnic groups but not as diverse as Nigeria. Malaysia is composed of 49% Malays; the largest ethnic group in their country, and the large Chinese minority and the rest of the population are some small ethnic groups. Mostly it is the Malays and the Chinese that manage the country in Malaysia. On the other hand, Kenya also has many ethnic groups but then again, not as many and diverse as Nigeria. In Nigeria, they have lots of major ethnic groups. Some major ethnic groups are in the northern part of Nigeria like Nupe, Tiv, and Kanuri. They have another major ethnic group in the southwest and predominantly it is Yoruba. Another one is Ibos, a predominant ethnic group in the southeast. With this many major ethnic groups, how would you expect a leader of the country runs the country? Cultures are diversified. There are many different beliefs, teaching, religions and so forth. Usually, whoever is the leader will have the tendency to uplift the hardship that his/her tribe have and at most time disregard the other tribes. With this, a country will hardly develop.

Another factor why Nigeria is less developed compared to the other two countries is that Nigeria relies on oil for more than 90% of its export earnings. Kenya and Malaysia do also have oil in their respective countries but they didn’t rely on it too much. Kenya, aside from oil, exported coffee beans, tea, and many more. But coffee and tea are their primary exports. In Malaysia, on the other hand, has rubber and tin primarily but they also have cacao, palm oil, timber and many more. And if we look at the GNI per capita of these countries with more export products, they are the ones who have developed more than the country that has few export products.

Another factor that I could site is the regional income disparity of a country. Nigeria, among all the countries in the world has the worst regional income disparity. For example is the Bendel and Kaduna has a regional income disparity of 5 is to1. With a low regional income disparity, it would mean that there is inequity in income distribution of a certain country. One tribe or ethnic group has a bigger chunk of income over the other tribe. And this is due to the fact that Nigeria has a rich diversity in ethnicity. And as pointed out in the previous paragraph, whoever is the leader of the country would most likely uplift the tribe he/she is now. He/she would put preference on his/her tribe than the other tribes which would, as a whole, make the country less progressive. This situation would tend to neglect the needs of the other tribes which in the long run become a detrimental effect to the country.