Democracy and Good Governance: Nigeria's Dilemma

DEMOCRACY AND GOOD GOVERNANCE: NIGERIA’S DILEMMA

Ilufoye Sarafa Ogundiya

Department of Political Science Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Nigeria

E-mail: [e-mail], [e-mail]

Abstract Despite its enormous resources and huge potentialities, Nigeria remains grossly undeveloped. Consequently, political instability, abject poverty, acute youth unemployment, heightened crime rate, poor health prospects and widespread malnourishment have been the main features of Nigeria’s political economy. The development tragedy in Nigeria fits into the trends of political instability for which Africa has become infamous in the past three decades and lends credence to the arguments by some students of African politics that governance is one of the major problems in Africa. This chapter argues that the problem of development in Nigeria is a problem of governance; define in term of the proper, fair and equitable allocation of resources for the achievement of the end or purposes of the state, which is the promotion of the common good. The paper submits that for good governance to be feasible in Nigeria, sound anticorruption policies devoid of mere speechifying must be put in place. Furthermore, the paper recommends a functional legislature and viable and independent judiciary, and the attitudinal transformation on the part of the political elite, the absence of which good governance and development will continue to be a mirage.

Keywords: Corruption, instability, underdevelopment, democracy, good governance.

INTRODUCTION

Despite all social and economic policies that have been implemented by the successive administrations, Nigeria has remained a laggard in social, economic and political developments. Subsequently, political instability, abject poverty, acute youth unemployment, heightened crime rate, poor health prospects, widespread malnourishment have been the main features of Nigeria’s political economy. One of the major explanations for the

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