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Democracy and good
governance: Nigeria’s dilemma
Ilufoye Sarafa Ogundiya
Department of Political Science, Usmanu Danfodiyo University,
Sokoto, Sokoto State, Nigeria. E-mail:
oisarafa@yahoo.com.
Accepted
30 April, 2010 |
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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 for in the past three decades. This
further lends credence to the arguments by some students of
African politics that governance is one of the major
problems in Africa. This paper argues that the problem of
development in Nigeria is a problem of governance; when
defined 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 anti-corruption policies devoid of mere
speeches must be put in place. Furthermore, the paper
recommends a functional legislature, a 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.
Key
words:
Corruption, instability, underdevelopment, democracy, good
governance. |
