Governance and Corruption in Nigeria: Implications for Development

Abstract

Nigeria as an independent nation has been governed for the past 56 years by both democratic and non democratic governments. The intervention in governance of Nigeria by the military was blamed on the inability of previous democratic governments to develop and sustain programmes that could have resulted in development. However, the military rule for 30 years also did not yield the much expected socio-economic development in terms of improvement in the standard of living of the Nigerian populace. The inability of Nigeria to attain development has been partly blamed on corruption in governance. Corruption is a clog in the wheel of progress of any nation state if the menace is left uncontrolled. Corruption has eaten deep into the polity of the Nigerian State. This paper seeks to examine the impact of corruption on Governance in Nigeria and its implications on the development of Nigeria. The materials for this paper were sourced from documentary sources such as journal articles, text books, online materials and other unpublished materials. The paper concludes that Corruption hinders development and advocates for stronger political will to fight corruption on the part of political leaders, making anti graft agencies independent of the executive arm of government and a review of anti graft laws with stiffer punishments for offenders amongst other recommendations