Abstract
This study was carried out to examine the economic development of democracy in Nigeria between 1999-2015. It specified on the consequences of privatization policy, the major factor of economic development, the state of Nigeria economic development and the present democratic regime including the Nigerians economic crisis. Impact of corruption and the legacy of military
rule on Nigeria’s economic development. It also investigates the impact of unstable government policies and economic injustices in Nigeria’s economic development. The secondary sources of data help to realize different ethnic groups in the country how Nigerian leaders do not know the position of economic development of the country and the concept of true democracy in Nigeria. The findings of this study also showed that democratic experiences have impacted little to the political economic situation of the people. It also revealed that leaders need to develop leadership traits that will properly the country to a stable economy. Leaders should be dedicated and able to perform their duties holistically by not compromising their integrity. Finally, accountability, transparence and selfless service should be the norm and ethnical of any political office holder not just the presidency and the governors and also public office holders should be organized and be more committed to the nation-building effort of the country.
CHAPTER ONE
- INTRODUCTION
- BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Nigeria is a unit of analysis in the consideration of good governance and socio-economic development. Before 1914 there was no geographical entity called Nigeria. Different cartographers and travelers qualified what is now known as Nigeria as guinea coast, Slave Coast, Niger empire, Niger, Sudan and Nigeria. The name Nigeria itself was derived from river Niger and was suggested by Flora Shaw who was the wife of Lord Lugard. This name appeared in the London time‟s issues of January 8, 1879. Other arguments arose later. The British government‟s desire to establish her hegemony on Nigeria took a gradual process. Lagos in consonance with Berlin conference of 1885. However, two major socio-economic factors were responsible for the amalgamation of Nigeria: the first being was that of administrative system based on indirect rule which had been successfully established in northern Nigeria. The British government attached much value to the system particularly as it provided an ideal and economic means of governing the masses with little disruption to their traditional socio-political institution. The second is that Nigeria had virtually no resources to rely on; it depended for survival on substantial grants-in-aid contribution from the British government and from southern Nigeria. It was in the process that Nigeria came into being through the administration of the British government.
Economic development is the development of economic wealth of countries, regions and communities for the well being of their inhabitants. From policy perspectives, economic development can be defined as efforts that seek to improve the economic well being and equality of life by creating and retaining jobs and Supporting or growing incomes and the tax base. Nigeria‟s democracy is truly at a crossroads, although there has been much progress in the year since the 1999 political transition, there are also deep seated problem of structure, institutional weakness performance that are jeopardizing the democratic experiment and the nation quest for national integration (Paul,2008) Nigeria‟s political class is fragmented, its institution largely feeble or dysfunctional, public goods are lacking, the vast majority of the people is
impoverished, and an epidemic of social violence has undermined security throughout the federation; ethnic, religious, and regional polarization has arguably worst in recent years, creating further uncertainties about a fragile national compact (Ojeniyi 2001).Economic development have been aided and supported by democratic governance in Nigeria since 1999. Through the help of peace and order in the development of the country, Peace is often seen as the absence of war and by logical extension war is the absences of peace (Ibeanu 2005) describe peace in sociological terms as a condition of social harmony in which there are no social antagonisms.
Good governance:
This is a system of government based on good leadership, respect for the rule of law and due process, the accountability of the political leadership to the electorate as well as transparency in the operations of government (ODOCK 2006) opined that it has to do with the leadership carrying out government business in an open, easy to understand and explicit manner, such that the rules made by government , the policies implemented by the government and the result of government activities are easy to verify by the ordinary citizens. Accountability as a component of good governance refers to the fact that those who occupy positions of leadership in the government must give account or subject themselves to the will and desire of the society. Good governance is in tandem with democratic governance which is largely characterized by high valued principles such as rule of law, accountability, and participation, transparency, human and civil rights. These governance qualities have the capacity to provide the development process of a country (Onifade 2011) has posed a critical question as to whether it‟s possible to have good governance without good leadership. This implies that where there is effective and efficient leadership there is bound to be good governance.
Security:
Security is viewed as the condition of feeling safe from harm or danger, the defense, protection and preservation of values. Security is about survival and the conditions of human existence it is the ability to protect and defect oneself be it an individual or a nation its cherished values and legitimate interests and the enhancement of well being. (Mijah 2007) see security as tantamount to development security is not just about the pressure of a military force, although this is
encompassed. There can be no development without security, to ensure effective security system; there must necessarily be some link between the elements of good governance by the leadership. These elements include the rule of law, accountability, and transparency in the management of resources, political stability, provision of basic needs and services as well as absences of corruption. The role of the leadership is particularly important in the governance project. The primacy of leadership in the governance project rests on the ability of the leadership to see beyond the perceptual vista of the people appreciate their needs and inspire and motivate them to cherish and desire these needs as goals that should be achieved. Indeed ensuring good governance for achieving peace, security and sustainable development rests with the leadership. This is dependent on the ability and capacity of leadership to allocate scarce resources, determine policy choices and outcomes that affect the direction and nature of development in the society. It is an inconsistent fact that there is a strong correlation between the nature of governance and the state of security in any society. But the cases in Nigeria appease to be problematic. From 1999 to date, the country has experienced considerable erosion of domestic security arising from inherent deficit in governance. This is evidence to increase the proliferation of private security firms and to scrub the problem of insecurity in the country. In point of fact, the nature of governance in Nigeria has not instituted sufficient policies and programmers to alter the structures of imbalance and insecurity entrenchment by colonialism and prolongs authoritarian military rule. These structures are exclusionary and ill suited especially in a democratic system of governance.
Human Rights:
A human right approach to development starts from the basic premise that the achievement of human right is the objective of any process aimed at improving the human condition. Human right is the freedom of speech of all citizens within their state. Very citizens have their right to vote and be voted for. Human right development in democratic governance emphasizes accountability, empowerment, participation and non-discrimination. Human right are inextricably linked with democratic governance they both require that people be aware of their rights and duties, that appropriate institutional arrangements facilitate their realization and that democratic civic culture have a role in both issues of national importance and those of everyday life.
Infrastructure:
Infrastructure is involved in the economic development of a democratic country when nation begins to develop because it is the basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society like industries, building, roads, bridges, health services, governance and so on. It is the enterprise or the products, services and facilities necessary for an economy to function. Infrastructure development is one of the bases of assessing the achievement of democratic leader and it is the foundation of good. Democratic governance infrastructure development in democratic governance is more challenging because of the accessibility of people to government and involves identifying the right project carrying out feasibility and viability studies and embarking out. Physical developments of the project, the challenges are numerous and include finance, technology for development, maintenance and design.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Against this background Nigeria economic development is in problem, some have blamed the problems of those articulated nature of the economy, others blamed it in military rule which lack public accounting and enmeshment in the passion of economic development. Others blamed it on the corrupt practices of those at the helm of affairs yet others blamed it on domination of privatization policy. Nigeria is probably a classic case of failure at the economy level and hence the study identified socio economic deregulation, under development and depend upon the global economy and hence the dominance of distributive politics of trying to hold together. The problem of the structure, institutional weakness performance that are jeopardizing the democratic experiment and the nation quest for the national integration of the country.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The purpose of the study is to investigate the economic development in democratic governance in Nigeria from 1999 to 2015. The specific purposes of this project are as follows:
1. To examine the impact of good governance on Nigeria‟s economic development.
- To investigate the legacy of military rule on Nigeria‟s economic development.
- To examine the role of security and provision of infrastructure in the development of the country.
- To examine the democratic governance have help in the economic line to be stable including the social welfare of all citizens.
- To examine how economic development has help to developed peace and order in democratic governance.
- To examine how human right has helped to formulate good governance in a democratic system of government.
