Corruption And Democratic Governance in Nigeria: An Incompatible Marriage For National Development

Abstract

Transparency is one of the cardinal principles driving democracy. The major emphasis of democratic governance, therefore, is popular sovereignty through public participation in governance process, in decision-making and fidelity of office holders. In Nigeria, there is glaring perversion of democratic governance and transparency. Opaque and widespread corruption looms large in the system. The phenomena present contradiction of best practices in a democratic system. It poses challenge to academic dialogue and generates serious debates that do not proffer any common ground for resolving the impasse. It also creates both theoretical and practical haze in scholarly dilemma over the fate they present to Nigeria. This study interrogates the correlation of corruption and democratic governance in Nigeria; it explores how they are trite problems plaguing good governance in Nigeria and further evaluates their general implications for development. It adopts post-colonial state theory as explanatory framework, content analysis for discussion of the contextual issues, and documentary method for the data collected. The findings show that lack of transparency breeds corruption. It retards institutional capacity and stalls infrastructural development in Nigeria. It recommends serious transformation of the political system to deepen the values of good governance provided by democracy, to entrench the culture of fidelity in public trust and invoke precepts of sound value orientation, to eradicate corruption in the system