VEJOH Volume 4 Number 1 2022

Democracy, Good Governance and Anti-Corruption War in Nigeria

Paul Tanko Shawulu Jacob Anto Bidda Kayode Ogundairo Emmanuel
Abstract

The idea of democracy itself is viewed almost exclusively as a Western concept of which African societies now stand desperately in need. Similarly, the presumption has been that democratic values and practices are alien to the African continent, with the West posturing as their cultural bearers and defenders. This mindset considers Africans as incapable of democratic thoughts and hence they should be infused with the “civilized” notion of Western democracy. What has been consistently ignored is that democratic values and processes have been as indigenous to Africans as they were to the ancient Greeks. African traditional political cultures and organizations would give credence to this conclusion. While the term democracy now a Western buzzword for representative government, might have been harrowed from the Greeks, good governance is about the processes for making and implementing decisions. It is not about making 'correct' decisions, but the best possible process for making those decisions. Governance is a concept used when discussing the achievement of various development goals such as poverty reduction, improvement of health and education services, or natural resource management which can be achieved in a corrupt free society. The research made used of content analysis in analyzing data it retrieved .Structural Conflict theory was also used to explain the research work and to give the study a solid back bone. The research recommends accountability and transparency in government so as to ensure good governance.

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