Abstract: Since the end of the Cold War and the subsequent shift in political and economic relationships between the global North and South, the demand for good governance has become the shorthand for changing the scope of exercise of authority in aids-seeking nations from ‘government’ towards ‘governance’ with transparency, accountability, inclusiveness and wider scope for human rights, all becoming recurrent vocabularies. What is also often encoded in good governance is the fight against corruption. In response, most Sub-Saharan African governments have experienced decades of anti-corruption programmes initiated with the support of multi-national agencies. While it is acknowledged that much progress has been made, the pace is however, discouragingly slow especially in countries like Nigeria and Kenya. This paper argues that understanding the differential foundational structures which breed corruption in various African states is central to achieving substantial progress in anti-corruption fights by designing the appropriate counter-mechanisms. In the light of current corruption scandals and political events in Nigeria, the paper examines prebendal politics in Nigeria as theorized by Joseph (1987) to postulate the trajectory of Nigeria’s political economy into the future. It concludes by recommending the practice of full fiscal federalism in Nigeria. This would reduce concentration of excessive economic resources that promotes patronage politics at the Nigeria’s central government.
Keywords: Good governance, Prebandalism, Patronage Politics.
Title: Governance and Prebendalism in Nigeria: The Past, the Present and the Future
Author: ONI, Emmanuel Oluwole
International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research
ISSN 2348-3156 (Print), ISSN 2348-3164 (online)
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