Capacity Building and National Development in a Post Covid-19 Nigeria: A Critical Overview and Prognosis for Action

Abstract

Capacity building and national development focus on how the socio-economic development processes of a nation are affected by human resource development processes in that nation. It focuses on how people learn to create new institutions, utilize new technologies, cope with their environment, and alter their patterns of behavior for the well-being of the entire society. Capacity building and national development therefore focus on the capabilities of individuals and institutions to create economic, social, cultural, technological and demographic changes in a country, and become a catalyst for the socio-economic development of a nation. This study therefore examined the concepts: development, underdevelopment, modernization and national development, their origins and usages, and their interaction with capacity building to produce a modernized state; and the problems encountered in the process using Nigeria as a case study. The study found that Nigeria’s capacity building processes for national development has been adversely affected by the country’s national leadership crises, ethnic rivalries, insecurity, poverty, corruption and colossal mismanagement of her human and natural resources before the 2020 covid-19 pandemic era. It therefore recommends that capacity building for national development must involve making concerted efforts by the governments and the people at all levels of governance in the country to create conducive environments for the people to develop themselves, their businesses and enterprises towards the socio-economic development or modernization of the country.  The developments must be guided by the peoples’ and their communities’ needs and aspirations; and directed by the governments’ sustainable development goals for the country. This is more so because national development involves the process by which a society’s government acquires an institutional capacity to handle the political, economic and social pressures that are generated by the process of modernization. These pressures are more pronounced in the country now than ever before and are compounded by the covid-19 pandemic and corrupt national leaderships.