Corruption, Politics and Governance in Nigeria

Corruption in Nigeria since 1960 has cost the country hundreds of billions of pounds. The immediate impacts of this are economic pains and infrastructural decay, but long-term effects include crawling pace of national development and loss of integrity in the global system. So, how does corruption affect politics and governance in Nigeria? This chapter examines the relationship between them and where it has positioned the country in terms of development and progress. Anchored on the argument that corrupt and other related acts would inevitably discount the gains of democratic governance, pollute the political space, create a spatial economy, and lead to a “massification” of the poor, this chapter posits that corruption has thrown spanners in the wheels of national development. The chapter also argues that the politics and government of Nigeria have suffered for too long in the hands of habitual and unrepentant treasury looters, political jobbers and beneficiaries of interminable orchestrations of scandals and frauds. It recommends that anti-corruption agencies should be answerable only to the judiciary, made up of persons with records of integrity, and led by a judge with a record of accomplishment, forthrightness and fearlessness.