This study investigates the rules that govern economic life in Nigeria by exploring the
diverse ways business is conducted on the streets of Lagos, the country’s economic
hub. It challenges the current hegemonic economic imaginaries in Nigeria to find out
what important aspects have been excluded and filtered out from economic practices;
what imaginaries have gone unstated or silent, repressed or suppressed, in this
specific context. Imaginaries is the way the world is understood, after sense and
meaning making.
Nigeria has experienced three failed economic development plans, with the current
economic developmental model falling apart. The dominant ideology in Nigeria thus
far is the purely market-mediated, competitive and profit-oriented pursuit. Therefore,
this is a good time to challenge the prevailing economic imaginary. This study makes
sense of the lived experience of business practitioners, and the lessons therein. Hence,
the significance of this study lies in understanding this lived experience in order to
come up with a fitting economic imaginary and this could lead to economic
transformation in Nigeria.
The researcher conducted a seven-month ethnography study and used discourse
analysis procedures to examine how cultural and economic factors interact through an
analysis of actors in this urban space. From data gathered, a number of conclusions
are offered as to rules that govern economic life in this context. The principal findings
are: firstly, sense and meaning making are necessary to give a detailed picture of
economic life and, development need not be only economistic in nature. Secondly, the
economic ideology which is purely market-mediated, competitive and profit-oriented
faces resistance at certain levels in this context hence the repeated failures, but rather
an economic ideology which encourages an interdependences of competition mixed
with cooperation, profit-orientation, communal and private property ownership will
flourish. Therefore, propose a “working” model for development called Competitive
Collective Enterprise (CCE). This research bridges the disconnect between
international development policy and the actual reality of business on the street.