Leadership, Governance, and Poverty in Nigeria

Since Nigeria’s independence in 1960, the incidence of poverty has been on the rise in spite of the fact that the country had again returned to democratic governance in 1999. The poverty profile of the country had not improved after over thirteen years of uninterrupted purportedly liberal democratic practice. This paper therefore examines the relationship between leadership, governance, and poverty in Nigeria with particular reference to the Fourth Republic; and argues that the worsening poverty situation in the country is due principally to poor political leadership and the resultant bad governance. It was therefore recommended that a more rigorous and competitive political recruitment procedure should be put in place so as to ensure that only the best available persons with transformational vision are elected to high political offices. Keywords: Leadership, Political Leadership, Good Governance , Poverty, Nigeri

Promoting accountability in public sector management in today’s democratic nigeria

Lack of accountability in the management of the public sector in Nigeria has remained a critical issue especially since 1999 when democratic rule was reestablished in the country after a long period of military rule. Due to poor culture of accountability, corruption has become endemic in the country. Adopting the descriptive - contextual analysis method, this paper examined the perennial problem of poor culture of public accountability in Nigeria. The paper addresses the challenge of how best to ensure that public officials are held accountable for their actions and even inactions. To this end, specific suggestions for further promoting public accountability in Nigeria were advanced