Abstract:
Adam Smith's doctrine of classic laissez faire economics posits that government interference in the economy retards growth. That the economy stagnates if government protect domestic industry by tariffs and getting government out of the economy promote prosperity. With the end of the Cold War and the pressure on African nations to embrace the values of democracy and economic liberalism, Nigeria hurriedly began to implement Adam Smith's classic laissez faire economic reforms under the slogan 'government has no business in business'. This has created crisis of development, unending subjective economic reforms, poverty and culture of conflict in the areas of national security. Therefore, this research study seeks to identify and analyse the correlation between economic reforms and socio-political crisis in developing countries. In the course of the analysis, the study reveals that the peculiar and unusual nature of privatization, deregulation of the exchange rate, removal of fuel subsidy and trade liberalization carried out by the government have tacitly pushed Nigeria into the poverty capital of the world, where the few that have access to political power gets richer while the citizens wallows in extreme poverty resulting into violent behaviours in form of Bokoharam terrorism, kidnapping and banditry. We, therefore conclude that although the doctrine of minimal government has brought about marginal economic growth but it has also created imperfect markets, poverty and unemployment which cumulate into insecurity and socio-political crisis in developing countries of Africa.
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