This paper presents a sociological appraisal of the efforts of various governments in Nigeria towards
economic self-reliance using state-owned enterprises as the vehicle for this purpose. However, due to the
internal contradictions inherent in most developing societies like Nigeria, achieving economic self-reliance
has continued to elude these states. Nigeria’s public-sector driven economic system has been replaced by
government in Nigeria with different privatisation models aimed at strengthening the institutional
mechanisms of the state and creating an efficient and effective economic system to drive its development
agenda. This paper has identified the factors that negatively affected the functioning of state-owned
enterprises and made recommendations to address these problems with the goal of engendering economic
self-reliance in Nigeria
