The paper discusses conceptual and theoretical approaches to Africa politics such as the Modernization School; Marxian School; and the Statist School of thought vis-à-vis development and underdevelopment paradigm. The paper uncovers critical argument in various schools of thought, the variables that have caused relative development and severe-underdevelopment in Africa society at present and in the past respectively. Using Nigeria as a point of departure and melting-point, it will critically and objectively identify the problems and challenges of development in Africa and offer suggestions that will move Africa further along the path of development. The paper is aim to write-off the general belief that contemporary Africa countries are poor or underdeveloped due to neo-colonialism or imperialism that has been advance by Marxian scholars and Africa-nationalist in different underdeveloped literature. It has been a contending issue whether formal colonised Africa states can develop? Consequently, the paper concluded with statist school of thought attributing underdevelopment (poverty, unemployment, communal clashes, the rise of ethnic militia and militancy and so no) due to the problem of corruption and failure of governmental policies implementation in Africa created by Africa’s leaders. However, the paper is limited to issues of development and underdevelopment within colonised Africa states and in achieving the above objectives, the paper rely on secondary data. Moreover, Nigeria was adopted as a reference of analyses due to her population placement in the continent of Africa and one of the key players in international politics.
Keywords: Development, Marxian, Modernization, Statist And Corruption, Underdevelopment
