Corruption in Nigerian Parastatals is an Impediment to Socio-Economic Development: Case of Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited (ASCL)

Abstract

The aim of this study is to conduct an in-depth study on a single case, exploring ASCL’s failure to contribute to Nigerian socio-economic development.Ajaokuta Steel was substantially completed in the 1990s but unfortunately progressed no further. The aim of establishing Ajaokuta Steel Company was to take the lead of industrialising, developing, and taking Nigeria and Africa from poverty and unemployment. Questionnaire, interviews, and documents were used to gather data. The interviews from the case site and stakeholders were analysed from the interview transcript and data from the questionnaires were analysed using test statistics. The use of several data collecting methods was to achieve triangulation. The results of the interviews, documents and questionnaire indicated a lack of political will, international and local politics, corruption, military interventions in politics, the location of Ajaokuta Steel, patronage, ineffectiveness of anti-corruption agencies and the practice of abandonment of projects, as reasons why Ajaokuta Steel has not been fully completed. Theoretical framework based on neopatrimonialism was used to guide the researcher in the empirical work and in the study. This is because there is no known use of neopatrimonialism as a theory with parastatal in Nigeria known to the author. The originality of this study also lies with the opportunity of gaining access to interview the staff of ASCL which others found difficult to undertake. This is a huge breakthrough as that is rare in Africa where there is a huge public sector investment and that investment is moribund.