Omissions and contradictions in an African co-operative experiment: The case of Nigeria

This brief evaluation of the co-operative organizational apparatus in Nigeria examines three aspects of a ‘co-operative ideology’; the basis of the co-operative idea; the form of economic organization and the organizational structure. The analysis proceeds in the framework of the ‘entrepreneurial approach’ and concludes that such an ideology must reflect among other things, the economically inaltruistic and individualistic nature of human behaviour that is found in Nigerian traditional communities.