GOOD GOVERNANCE AND THE CHALLENGES OF NATION-BUILDING IN NIGERIA: A HISTORICAL EXPERIENCE SINCE 1999

Abstract

The paper examined the link between good governance and building-nation particularly the challenges that have hindered sustainable building-nation since 1999. It was established that good governance is all about transparency and accountability in allocating authoritative resources. And as such internalizing the culture of good governance is the recipe for quality leadership aim at building-nation in every levels of government in the country. When good governance is be entrenched, the recurrent pathological problems of corruption, primordial sentiment, patron-client politics, the unholy marriage of Nigeria and ethno-religious loyalty that many scholars and analyst have identified as the challenges of nation-building in the country  would be resolved. For the reason that the principles of transparence and accountability are all about using instrumentalities of government to formulate policies and programmes that would be people-oriented. For the way forward, Nigerians are what they are today only because their leaders are not what they should be. It is therefore, obvious that positive leadership represents Nigeria’s oasis of hope for greatness in a desert of mediocrities, purposeless, corrupt and visionless men and women masquerading as leaders at all levels of governance in the country. Given this reality, the paper recommends that the various underlying causes of leadership failure in Nigeria, which have remained obstacles to the country’s quest for true good governance; and nation-building, must be addressed with the seriousness and urgency they deserve. This will allow for the emergence of a positive leadership that would not compromise the national quest for improved welfare for the citizens; social infrastructures, human development; and technological breakthrough, which are the dividends of democracy through the internalization of the culture of good governance.