FOOTBALL THEORY OF SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENT

A THEORY FOR THE END OF AFRICA’S UNDERDEVELOPMENT

Abstract

This paper approaches the developmental quest by the African States through a theoretical prescription. The paper expounds on the football theory of scientific development (FTSD), arguing that the theory has a recipe for ending African underdevelopment. The neoclassical economic prescription which stresses the transformative power of capitalism that spurs individual productive units from meager self-sufficiency to an integrated network of markets, information technology, and international institutions has failed to produce the expected results in Africa. While the failure is blamed on the African political elites to manage their economy and politics, however, a central argument blames colonialism that produced the circuit of capital and production that target draining raw materials and the peripheralization of the African political economy to service the industrial needs of metropolitan states. As the extant policy frameworks are premised on existing economic theories, in contrast, I extrapolate analogically from football to offer a theory of development that is deemed best suited to address Africa’s underdevelopment. While extrapolating from football, this theory demonstrates how indigenous ideas and practices can unleash the technological potentials African countries require to compete in a global economy. Although the theory is grounded in observation, it is a causal inferential theory that is premised on the explicit acknowledgment of the disparity in economic development between African and Western economies.