Re-Visiting Political Corruption and Development in Nigeria under Democratic Rule

It has been observed that political corruption undermines development in all sectors of the economy in Nigeria. This paper attempts an overview of the relevance of anti-corruption to sustainable development in Nigeria. The position of this study is that the abuse of political power by those elected into various offices at all levels undermines Nigeria’s endeavours towards development. This study thus examines the political economy of political corruption vis-à-vis human-wellbeing and development in Nigeria with emphasis on causes of corruption, relationship between corruption and underdevelopment, and proffers a broad schedule of recommendations. The study posits that there has been a state-centric advance to political corruption Nigeria, which hampers sustainable development in that context. Political corruption has usually been considered a threat to “national development”. Thus, the study reviews extant government policies towards fighting corruption and suggests measures which are considered crucial for a more effective anti-corruption campaign. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2014.v3n1p305