Bad Governance and its Threat to Democratic Consolidation in Nigeria, 1999- 2019

Abstract

After two decades of uninterrupted democracy in Nigeria, the much expected good governance that it promises is yet to be attained. The hope of dividends of democracy has been dashed. This is due to the activities of politicians which do not allow the rules and procedures of the system to prevail. Greedy Nigerian politicians rig themselves into power or to remain in power. Corruption becomes the norm of the leadership. This results in the paradox of Nigerian situation. A country rich in both human and natural resources but her citizens wallow in poverty. This necessitates the need to interrogate the factors that break the nexus of democracy and development in Nigeria’s forth republic. The paper uses qualitative method of research with data gotten from secondary sources. It adopts the structural functional theory which among others presupposes that the various structures must perform their respective functions so as to keep the system going. It finds out that due to the fraudulent means politicians get to offices and the resultant high level of corruption and clientelism in Nigeria makes it difficult for the government to proffer solutions to the vices of the nation. Hence, the Human Development Index (HDI) of Nigeria is very low.