OKIBE HYGINUS BANKO1
onwaidodo@gmail.com, hyginus.banko@esut.edu.ng
ENEASATO BENJAMIN ONYEKACHI2
benjamin.eneasato@esut.edu.ng
Department of Political Science
Faculty of Social Sciences
Enugu State University of Science & Technology
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 officeholders. 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.
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