1.

local government has an interest or where its presence is felt. It is a very wide organ, encompassing the civil service, the school system, the judicially, the local government system, the security agents, government companies and public service is of great importance to any given state. The role of the public service in achieving good governance cannot be underestimated. The purpose of the state is to maximize the potentials of its citizens by providing basic rights, liberty, security, and welfare, which can be gathered from the central role in the formulation and implementation of policies designed for the development of the society. Development is critical and essential to the sustenance and growth of any nation. A country is classified as developed when can provide qualitative life for her citizenry. Nigeria in the last fifty years has been battling with the problems of development despite huge human, material, and natural resources in her possession. In Nigeria, the roles of government has come under severe critiques within the framework of the gap that exists between the anticipated roles and the actual output in guiding the society along the course of development as a result of corruption. The paper discusses the problems affecting national development as well as strategies for achieving sustainable development in Nigeria. It also observes the fact that Nigeria is still struggling with the problems of bad governance as a result of the high level of non-accountability and the presence of visible corruption that cannot be untameable legally as a result of the system in place. The article also reveals that many of the anti-corruption efforts are part of the liberal reforms that assume that corruption is an individual act or personal misuse of public office for private gain. It points out that as laudable as the intentions of government in putting in place institutions and laws meant to curb corruption, the enforcement of these laws has left much to be desired. In fact, the various reform efforts of the Nigerian government are of limited value because they fail to consider much of the dynamics that support corruption in the country. Thus, people now regard the law as paper tigers, meant only to the enforced when breached by low-level public officers. While successive administrations have taken partially successful steps to control corruption, these efforts have not fundamentally undermined the supporting environment for corruption in the country. The article adopts secondary data as sources of information. The paper concluded that faithful implementation of development plan, commitment on the part of the leaders and absence of corruption are required for the achievement of sustainable development in Nigeria. The article therefore recommends the need for greater transparency in the management of public funds by the public officers, and the need for political will and commitment from governments at Federal, State and Local, including government institutions at various levels of governance in the country; with the need to consciously transform social values and state institutions that works as enabling environments for corruption. The leadership also has huge responsibility in controlling corruption and restoring the hope to the citizenry through good governance. Unless good governance is in place with accountability carefully observed, sustainable development cannot be realized.

n every society and community, there are certain behaviours, which are very much detested during interpersonal relationships, and group behaviour. The behaviours include cheating, lying, etc. These behaviours which have moral, ethical, legal and religious implications are detested because they are inimical to proper and decent standards. The pattern of that encapsulates all this detested attitude is corruption (Omoluabi, 2007:3).

One of the major challenges facing Nigeria and other developing areas of the world is how to create a context of stable political and socio-economic environment for policies and programmes to be implemented. The issue of getting the right leadership to fight corruption and propel good governance has been a recurring decimal in Nigeria and Africa in general. Once this enabling environment is created, it becomes easy for the people to confront and resolve challenges facing them by using resources within their environment to create a condition of life where each stage is progressively better than the preceding one. However, this is not the case in Nigeria due to corruption and bad governance. Good governance encapsulates transparency, accountability, freedom of choice and liberty for the people to pursue their individual and corporate interest. Indeed, at the core of Africa's underdeveloped status are corruption and leadership deficit.

Corruption as a household name in every society and its negative impact on the socio-economic and political setting of a country can never be over emphasized. There has been a global cry and harmonized efforts to tackle corruption through the creation and implementation of laws and policies across nations. Some nations have been successful in their quest to reduce the level of corruption while others still fall behind. In this case, Nigeria seems to be an example of a state that has failed in combating corruption. The challenges of corruption remain a major devastating issue facing Nigeria since the colonial period, although, this phenomenon has become a cankerworm that has eaten deep into the fabrics of our system (Muhammed, 2013:120). From the common man in the street to the highest political figure, corruption is recurrent in almost every transaction in the Nigerian society or system.

Over the years, public sector in Nigeria has been characterized largely by ineffectiveness and inefficiency. The situation is not different in other African countries. High-level corruption has been identified as being responsible for Nigeria's underdevelopment and growing crimes rates. It is instructive to note that the Nigerian government and citizens have not totally committed themselves to introducing and implementing measures that can prevent or drastically reduce the extent and consequence of corruption in the country. That is not to say that laws, institutions, and programmes for controlling corruption have not been introduced by successive governments. On the contrary, every Nigerian government since 1975 introduced elaborate laws, programmes, and policies, only for officials to turn such into fertile opportunity for corrupt practices and enrichment. Consequently, there has been a geometrical growth in the rate of corruption in the country (Etannibi, 2002). Etannibi (2002), also claimed that corruption is the source of many socioeconomic and political problems that have militated against the attainment of economic development, equity, social justice, political integration, and stability as well as democracy in Nigeria.

Political corruption is a persistent phenomenon in Nigeria. The employment, promotions, postings, and deployment processes, especially in the federal service are riddled with corruption, and it was estimated in 2012 that, Nigeria had lost over $400 billion to corruption since independence. In 2018, the country ranked 144 th in the 180 countries listed in Transparency International's Corruption Index. Yet corruption in Nigeria has continued ever since with greater ferocity and intensity. Since the return of the country to civil rule on May 29, 1999, the Nigerian government has taken several measures to address the problems of corruption and bad governance in the country. Despite the successes attained by these measures, the situation remains unacceptable as corruption continues to permeate and pervade every facet of national life in Nigeria.

In this research article, the data for the study were basically selected from secondary materials such as textbooks, internet materials, newspapers, magazines, and journals articles, etc, through a systematic qualitative content analysis.

In discussing issues in this study, the article is divided into nineteen sections. The first section dealt with the introduction, the second focused on the conceptual analysis where corruption, governance and good governance were conceptualized while the third aspect treated the conceptual clarifications, followed by the national development plan in Nigeria, the problem of national development in Nigeria, strategies for national development in Nigeria, and the seventh section deals with the strategies for the national development in Asia. The eighth aspect treated the theoretical exploration of corruption, and in the nineth part, the interface between leadership, corruption, governance, and the theory of two public was treated. In the section tenth, theory of resource course was treated, followed by the historical perspective of corruption in Nigeria, forms of corruption in Nigeria public sector, the effective nature and causes of corruption in Nigeria, examining corruption and governance in Nigeria in retrospect, the major challenges of corruption and governance in Nigeria, and the way forward on corruption and good governance in Nigeria. Anti-corruption initiatives in Africa: The National and Regional experiences focus on section seventh. The eighteen section takes a cursory look at the analysis of trends and policy implementations: African context, while the last section presented the concluding remarks.

Corruption is both an ancient and a global phenomenon that created the social phenomenon that is difficult to define and has refused a universally accepted definition. Its practice is referenced by and dates back to the ancient Christian and Islamic evolutionary historical books and days, respectively. These ancient historical documentations argues that in the "garden of Eden", corruption overturned and crippled the first social institution that God constituted on the planet earth -the Garden of Eden, (Holy Bible, Genesis Chapter 2-3, Quran Chapter7:22, (Osvaldo H. Schenone and Samuel Greeg, 2003). In the same vein, corruption across the globe today continues to cripple the development across the globe -socio economic and political institutions across the globe. It is a menace that has no respect for developing, developed and industrialized societies. Corruption is well known across the world as a danger to socio economic and political transformation but, it has been difficult to reach a global consensus on its definition and permanent cure till date, for many reasons. Corruption is a multifaceted phenomenon that has multiple causes and effects. Scholars, policy makers and opinion leaders tend to be confused in the process of analysis due to complexity of the phenomenon as it takes on various forms.

Before we attempt to review any stated definition, corruption has been identified as one of the major clogs in the wheel of development in Africa. It gained prominence in development lexicon in the late Volume XXI Issue V Version I 52 ( ) 1980s and early 1990s alongside other development concepts, like good governance, transparency, accountability, and popular participation to mention but a few. The World bank and other international Financial Institutions, like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded that the structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) failed in Africa due to bad governance, including corrupt practices. Prior to just mentioned period, different institutions and social settings called corruption different names. The International Financial Institutions (IFIs), like the World Bank (WB) does not call it corruption in the past but "project leakage and/or project pilferage". The World Bank (WB) concepts were coined as a result of its experiences of corrupt practices in some of its supported development projects across the globe. This amongst others, underscores why development banks like the African Development Bank (AfDB) and others with similar institutional objectives continue to prioritize anti-corruption fight in their project's development. The definition of corruption varies depending on the inclination of the scholar and perception of the concept, nevertheless, all rationale adults know what constitute corrupt practices (Inspector General of the Government of Uganda, 1989).

The challenge of consensus building on the word corruption also brought along with it the problem of having a universal acceptable definition for the concept. Unfortunately, up ill date, there is no global acceptable definition for the menace. Different definers describe and defines it from their experiences and perspectives. Some development practitioners and researchers have also contended that the best way to define corruption is to look at it from its various manifestations. This school of thought argues that corruption could manifest in the form of bribery greed, stealing, extortion, embezzlement, fraud, and nepotism. Odukanmi (2013), argued that corruption can be likened to a dreadful Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes (AIDS) virus that is difficult to heal but can be successfully prevented, if necessary, prevention and steps are taken. Despite the arguments on the definitions, practices and solution of corruption, it is also important to mention that, some of the definitions have gained prominence in governance and development literature globally, like that of the Transparency International's definition of "abuse of entrusted authority for private gain"; The United Nations Global Programme Against Corruption (GPAC), defines corruption as the "abuse of power for private gain"; The World Bank (World Bank Independent Evaluation Group, 2006) defines corruption as "the abuse of office for private gains." Public office is abused for private gain when an official accepts, solicits, or extorts a bribe. Agbu (2003), observes that public office can be abused for selfish gain even if bribery does not take place. This implies that political corruption could be defined in the form of patronage, election rigging, and voters register manipulation, favouritism in the award of contract, procurement scam, tribalism and nepotism in recruitment and promotion, unfair punishment, and sanctions for public officials. Given the stated definitions, it can be deduced that, corruption or political corruption denotes any action that violates electoral rules or the formal duties of public roles, rules, or norms regarding public trust.

These explanations and definitions bring to light the extent to which corrupt practices are indulged and perpetrated. Corruption viewed from different perspectives by scholars, share some common concern. There is a general agreement among scholars that corruption is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. It hurts everyone whose life, livelihood or happiness depends on the integrity of people in a position of authority. Fatile and Adejuwon (2012), it is a serious societal problem about which something must be done to reduce its occurrence and prevalence.

On the other hand, the term 'governance' cannot be pinned down to a universally acceptable definition. This is because it has fallen into semantic predicament to the extent that the literature on it replete with so many definitions of the term by various scholars with different variant and subtype. However, we shall comb the conceptual terrains of the term with a view to finding the middle ground for its heuristic investigation. According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP, 2011) governance is defined as "the exercise of economic, political and administrative authorities to manage a country's affairs at all levels". Similarly, the World Governance Survey Report conceptualized governance as "the formulation and stewardship of the formal and informal rules that regulates the public realm, the arena in which state as well as economic and social actors interacts to make decisions (in Hyden & Court, 2002).

Governance has also been defined as the use of political authority and exercise of control over society and the management of its resources for social and economic development. It encompasses the nature of functioning of a state's institutional and structural arrangements, decision making processes, policy formulation, implementation capacity, information flows, effectiveness of leadership and the nature of the relationship between rulers and the ruled (Doig, 1995). Governance can also be described as the use of authority and the exercise of control over society and the management of its resources for social and economic development. It is the way power is exercised by governments in the distribution of a country's social and economic resources. The nature and manner of distribution is what makes governance good or bad one. Thus, according to Ogundiya (2010), when resources must be distributed to promote inequality or to achieve personal or group ambitions, the essence of governance which coincides with the essence of politics and essence of the state is defeated. Therefore, resources must be distributed responsibly, equitably, and fairly for the realization of the essence of the state.

As noted by Okeke (2010), governance is said to have evolved from the need to organize society towards the achievement of a common goal. An opinion worth considering is that society derives its roots from the solitary man who later got transformed into a family person to fulfil the need for socialization. Within this union, he enjoyed the love, care and company of family members and recognised their inherent and inalienable rights to preserve the love, harmony, and cohesion within the family. Society later grew out of the family in response to the need to fulfil other higher needs and the collective aspirations of the people, such as security, economic well-being and survival, through negotiations and the formation of social contract between the governors and the governed. Governance, therefore, concerns not just the integrity, efficiency, and economy of government but also its effectiveness in terms of the ends to which government organization and activity are directed.

Recently the terms "governance" and "good governance" are being increasingly used in development literature. Bad governance is being increasingly regarded as one of the root causes of all evil within our societies. Major donors and international financial institutions are increasingly basing their aid and loans on the condition that reforms and ensures "good governance" are undertaken. Good governance has some characteristics which include: It is participatory, consensus oriented, accountable, transparent, responsive, effective, and efficient, equitable and inclusive and follows the rule of law. It assures that corruption is minimized, the views of minorities are considered and that the voices of the most vulnerable in society are heard in decision-making (Akhakpe, 2014). It is also responsive to the present and future needs of society (Downer, 2000).

Good governance has also been seen as government that fulfils the terms of the social contract with the people. It is also seen as a fundamental right in a democracy, and it implies transparency and accountability.

Good governance entails an administration that is sensitive and responsive to the needs of the people and is effective in coping with emerging challenges in society by framing and implementing appropriate laws and measures. It includes strict rules of accountability. Good governance largely depends on the extent to which the general citizenry perceives a government to be legitimate, i.e., committed to improving the public welfare ? deliver public services and equitable in its conduct ? favouring no special interests or groups. It is among other things, participatory, transparent, and accountable. It is also effective, equitable and promotes the rule of law. Good governance ensures that political, social, and economic priorities are based on broad consensus in society and that the voices of the poorest and the most vulnerable are heard in decision-making over the allocation of development resources (Richardson, 2008).

Good governance however remains elusive with no limitation of scope that commands universal acceptance. The true test of good governance is the degree to which it delivers on the promise of human, civil, cultural, economic, political, and social rights. It ensures that corruption is minimized, the views of minorities are considered and that the voices of the most vulnerable in society are heard in decision making. It is also responsive to the present and future needs of society and the nation at large. Governance is good when it is able to achieve the desired end of the state defined in terms of justice, equity, protection of life and property, enhanced citizens' participation, preservation of rule of law and improved living standard of the populace (Ogundiya, 2010). There is no doubt that in Nigeria since the return to democratic rule in 1999, good governance has been elusive which many scholars believe is largely attributable to large scale level of corruption in different facets of the society and most especially the public sector.

Politically, good governance entails the establishment of a representative and accountable form of government; good governance requires a strong and pluralistic civil society, where there is freedom of expression and association; good governance requires good institutions -sets of rules governing the actions of individuals and organizations and the negotiation of differences between them; good governance requires the primacy of the rule of law, maintained through an impartial and effective legal system; and good governance requires a high degree of transparency and accountability in public and corporate processes.

Economically, good governance requires policies to promote broad-based economic growth, a dynamic private sector and social policies that will lead to poverty reduction. Economic growth is best achieved in an efficient, open, market-based economy. Investment in people is a high priority, through policies and institutions that improve access to quality education, health and other services that underpin a country's human resource base. Effective institutions and good corporate governance are needed to support the development of a competitive private sector. For markets to function, social norms are needed that respect contract and property rights.

Yet, careful management of the national economy is vital in order to maximize economic and social advancement. Governance comprises the mechanisms, processes and institutions through which citizens and groups articulate their interests, exercise their legal rights, meet their obligations and mediate their differences. Good governance means competent management of a country's resources and affairs in a This brings us to the vexed issues of development. The term development has endured conceptual and methodological shift over the years. In the 70s, development was associated with issues of growth in the economy, rise in per capita income and increase in Gross Domestic Product (GDP). However, Todaro (1982) provides a parameter for interrogating the issues of development. For him, objectives of development should include ability to meet basic needs such as food, shelter, health and protection, achievement of self-esteem and human freedom. Todaro went further to argue that society deserves human freedom in form of emancipation from alienating material conditions of life and freedom from the social servitude of man and ignorance of nature, misery, institutional and dogmatic beliefs.

Corroborating the above view, Eberlee (2001) argued that in contemporary times, the concept of development has moved away from the fetishism of growth and development to the ability of a people to recover their resources and use same according to its cultural values to solve their individual and collective problems to bring about new frame of life where each stage is an improvement on the preceding one. What is at stake in Africa is the lack of development of man's wellbeing and welfare due to bad governance which has given rise to monumental corruption.

Development as a concept is a victim of definitional pluralism. It is a difficult word to define. However, attempts have been made by erudite scholars to conceptualize development. Some of these definitions will be explored for the purpose of this study. Gboyega (2003), captures development as an idea that embodies all attempts to improve the conditions of human existence in all ramifications. It implies improvement in material well-being of all citizens, not the most powerful and rich alone, in a sustainable way such that today's consumption does not imperil the future, it also demands that poverty and inequality of access to the good things of life be removed or drastically reduced. It seeks to improve personal physical security and livelihoods and expansion of life chances. Naomi (1995) believes that development is usually taken to involve not only economic growth, but also some notion of equitable distribution, provision of health care, education, housing and other essential services all with a view to improving the individual and collective quality of life (Naomi, 1995). Chrisman (1984) views development as a process of societal advancement, where improvement in the well-being of people are generated through strong partnerships between all sectors, corporate bodies, and other groups in the society. It is reasonable to know that development is not only an economic exercise, but also involves both socioeconomic and political issues and pervades all aspects of societal life.

National, according to Longman dictionary of contemporary English, refers to a phenomenon that embraces a whole nation. National development therefore can be described as the overall development or a collective socio-economic, political as well as religious advancement of a country or nation. This is best achieved through development planning, which can be described as the country's collection of strategies mapped out by the government. National development plans in Nigeria We have had series of development plans in Nigeria.

Nigeria is permanently hunted by the spectre of development. The myth of growth and development is so entrenched that the country's history passes for the history of development strategies and growth models from colonial times up to date. No term has been in constant flux as development, and this seems that, Nigeria is the only country where virtually all notions and models of development have been experimented (Aremu, 2003).

Two years after independence, the first National Development Plan policy was formulated between 1962 and 1968 with the objectives of development opportunities in health, education and employment and improving access to these opportunities, etc. This plan failed because fifty percent of resources needed to finance the plan was to come from external sources, and only fourteen percent of the external finance was received (Ogwumike, 1995).

Collapse of the first Republic and the commencement of civil war also disrupted the plan. After the civil war in 1970, the second national development plan 1970 to 1974 was launched, the plan priorities were in agriculture, industry, transport, manpower, defence, electricity, communication and water supply and provision of social services (Ogwumike, 1995). The third plan, covering the period of 1975 to 1980 was considered more ambitious than the second plan. Emphasis was placed on rural development and efforts to revamp agricultural sector. The fourth plan 1981 to 1985 recognized the role of social services, health services, etc. The plan was aimed at bringing about improvement in the living conditions of the people. The specific objectives were: an increase in the real income of the average citizen, more even distribution of income among individuals and socioeconomic groups, increased dependence on the country's material and human resources, a reduction in the level of unemployment and underemployment (Ogwumike, 1995).

During these periods, Nigeria's enormous oil wealth was not invested to build a viable industrial base for the country and for launching an agrarian revolution to liquidate mass poverty. For instance, the Green Revolution Programme that replaced Operation Feed the Nation failed to generate enough food for the masses. In the recent past, various strategies for development have also been tried with little or no result; among these were the Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAP), Vision 2010, National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS), Creation of Development Centres, etc. Currently, there are seven-point agenda of the present administration with vision 2020, and without any clear methodological approach towards achieving them. It is obvious that the current results so far are not what development connotes.

Despite series of development strategies, put in place by successive governments, and sometimes with good intentions, all attempts to generate meaningful development proved futile. Based on this, one is now confronted with these puzzles: "Were those previous development plans or strategies bad in their context, or wrongly projected?" If nothing was wrong with the plans, then why is it still difficult to generate meaningful development despite the huge resources at our disposal? The solutions to these puzzles are not farfetched. A lot of factors have combined to fetter nation's development.

One, there are in most cases, no executive capacity responsible for the formulation and implementation of the plan. What we usually see are officials entrusted to such a position but without any meaningful executive authority. Some of the previous development plans failed because; there was little or no consultation of the public. Planning is supposed to involve even the peasants in the villages. Even, the Local Government officials who are close to the people were not consulted. Planning is not an edifice where technocrats alone operate (Mimiko, 1998).

Lack of good governance also militates against national development. Where there is no good governance, development becomes a mirage. This is as a result of bad leadership in the country. Most of our leaders have no sense of commitment to development. Mimiko (1998) captures the situation this way: "The decolonization allowed the crop of leaders that aligned with colonial power to take over Nigeria. This ensured the sustenance of a neo-colonial economy even after political independence. These leaders on assumption of power quickly turned up the repressive machinery of the colonial state rather than dismantling it. Significantly, they have no vision of development to accompany the efficient instrument of repression they inherited. All they were interested in was access to power and privileges and not development".

High level of corruption and indiscipline is another barrier to development. Nigeria state is corrupt, managed by corrupt leaders who have made the state an instrument of capital accumulation, rather than using it to project the interest of the citizenry. An incredibly good plan supervised by a thoroughly corrupt state can hardly do a thorough good job (Mimiko, 1998). Corruption and development are antithetical to each other, the two cannot cohabit, and so, where one is present, the other suffers.

Another important factor is the mono-economic base of the country. The country largely depends on crude oil for her survival to the detriment of other resources. All other sectors of the economy are neglected. For instance, agriculture, which constitutes the mainstay of the Nigerian economy in the 1950s and 1960s, has been thrown into limbo over the years. How would government encourage export promotion when there is virtually nothing to export? The economy is not diversified, and this is not suitable for a sustainable development (Mimiko, 1998).

The beauty of any development plan is the faithful implementation of such plan, which its success lies with the implementers. In our previous discussion, it was mentioned that most of the past development plans failed as a result of implementation problem and lack of committed leadership etc.

Based on this fact, new development policies and strategies are currently in place as alternative strategies for development, such as Seven Points Agenda, Vision 2020, etc. These policies and vision appear to be all embracing but they are not sacrosanct in their totality. But if faithfully implemented, the nation at least will move towards path of development. It is in our opinion that to successfully implement the Seven Point Agenda of the present regime, there some lessons we can learn from Asian models of development.

First, development requires total commitment on the parts of the leadership. The need for discipline and honesty on the part of the project implementers cannot be compromised; such officials should show enough discipline, interest, willingness, dedication, and honesty. Without these attributes and the will to pursue set economic goals, all other ingredients of development present would amount to nullity.

Second, this country should learn that wholesale liberalization; the type advocated by the apologists of orthodox SAP is not necessarily synonymous with development. It goes without saying therefore that a level of state involvement (heterodoxy) is imperative even in the face of the crucial need for structural adjustment. But whatever the degree of state involvement, private ownership of properties must be guaranteed for investment to get stimulated (Mimiko, 1997). Although, it is another question whether Nigerian state as presently constituted can play this critical role given its embarrassing level of corruption, inefficiency, and incapacitation by commitment to sundry primordial values. Be it as it may, the goal should be to evolve a process of reformation of the state to make it able to play the type of highly constructive role that its counterparts are playing in the whole of East Asia (Mimiko, 1997).

Also, stability and continuity of policies encourage investment and propel development. For instance, in Korea, when park was assassinated, his policies remained and were building on. Nigeria leadership must learn to build on policies rather than to jettison them for new ones for the sake of party politics and personal 240 J. Public Adm. Policy Res. aggrandisement. There is the need for Nigeria to revamp the agricultural sector; this sector was instrumental in the development of Japan. Agriculture used to be the mainstay of Nigeria economy, but the discovery of crude oil succeeded in putting agriculture into state of oblivion.

Human resources development is also a sine qua non to Nigeria national development; this was demonstrated in Japan and Korea (Lawal et al., 1976). Development depends very much on human knowledge and skills. This must be such that a high quality of education and training is achieved for a large majority at a reasonable price and the context and quality of such education and training should be relevant and adequate to the country's development needs. Literature on development stresses the axiom that it is the people who develop and that unless there are large numbers of suitably qualified people, development cannot take place.

There is need for attitudinal change. Nigerians must as a matter of fact change their pessimistic attitude towards development. The idea or belief that "things cannot work in Nigeria or Nigerian factor" should be discouraged. Real development is achieved through internal activities rather than from external influences. Development is seen as a process generated within a society by forces propagated and invigorated by the actual members of that society. It is believed that true development can neither be started nor sustained by outsiders. Although, no country can develop in isolation, but heavy emphasis should not be placed on foreign resources for the country's development. The models of development of Japan and China show how these countries utilize their internal resources both human and material for rapid economic development. It is reasonable that Nigerians should inculcate a high sense of patriotism as demonstrated by the Japanese and Chinese.

Importantly, citizenship should be promoted over indigeneity in order to achieve cooperation and participation of all communities in the development process. Omotoso (2008) noted that the 1999 constitution is directly or indirectly promoting indigeneity in the country. For example, section 318(1) of paragraph (IV) supports indigeneity. The constitution sets parameters for indigenes and non-indigenes. It equally gives legal bases to various discriminatory policies that actively promote indigeneity, contrary to some sections that argue against discrimination. This is very contradictory. Leadership in Nigeria must behave in a way to inculcate the spirit of patriotism in the minds of the people, so that they will be ready to stand with the government in her development efforts. When Nigerians see themselves as one and not as belonging to one section of the country as portrayed presently, the urge to develop Nigeria will be germinated and sustained.

Additionally, the need to reform electoral process is imperative for socio-economic and political development. Electoral fraud is one of the banes of Nigeria's development. The role of leadership in development cannot be overemphasized, all efforts towards development must be coordinated and directed by the leaders, therefore, the leaders must be development conscious, have genuine interest for development and the political will to propel such development. The leaders must also have the cooperation of the people, because, it is the people that develop a nation. Honestly, the aforementioned ingredients cannot be possible without a legitimized mandate for the leaders by the people. When a leader assumes office illegitimately or through electoral fraud, such leader is bound to fail in his effort to generate meaningful development. This is due to the fact that such illegitimate leaders tend to display characters that repress development such as; selfishness, corruption, pride, thuggery and inefficiency and also, there is apathy and natural detachment to development plans by the people as they did not see such emerging leaders as the products of their consent through voting. Based on the foregoing, the electoral process should be reformed in such a way that nobody assumes power (political) through crook or fraudulent means. The process should be made opened, free, fair and competitive. All legal battles preceding the elections must be concluded before any swearing in. This, it is believed, will create genuine environment conducive for development. Lastly, development plan should not be exclusively regarded as economic issue it should be seen as holistic and encompassing national issue that cuts across economic, social, political, and psychological aspects of human endeavour.

This model outlines the driving forces of development in some of the Asia countries as models for Nigeria's development. The enviable growth and development patterns of several Asian countries are well known. East Asia is the only region in the world that has been able to maintain strong, consistent growth patterns over several decades, led first by Japan and the newly industrializing economies of Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan, etc (Mimiko, 1998;Adelman, 1995). Apart from the homogenous nature of these societies, other several factors were responsible for their development. These were development of agricultural sector, a system of mass education, development of indigenous industries, export-oriented strategy, the Spartan discipline of their leadership, existence of efficient bureaucracy, human resources development, encouragement of a dynamic private sector working in co-operation with the government towards a societywide vision of development, institutional capacity building and attention to the problems of governance, consistency and policy stability, etc (Mimiko, 1998).

IV.

As corruption is a complex phenomenon, no one theory explains it all. This part of the article reviews the main theories used to explain why corruption occurs. The technical or effectiveness theory posited that an organization is technically efficient, if it is adequate for the demand made on it. What the technical theorists are saying is that efficiency of the public administrators should be measured by how well they have performed in meeting the objectives of the organization. That is, to provide and deliver essential services and goods to the public at an affordable price and at the right time.

Target (operational) theory is concerned with a situation where a number of different units are operating in a number of different environments. Public sector comprises of the department, ministries, and others like public corporations. It is through these organizations, which makes up the public sector that government carries it activities (Akpan, 1982). An organization might try to be efficient but its activities, its interdependency or inter-relationship with other departments might affect negatively or positively its efficiency.

Institutional theory -also known as institutionalism -uses country and government institutional characteristics, such as pre-existing rule of law, well-defined anti-corruption norms, and independent anti-corruption institutions with enforcement powers, to explain corruption in the public sector. Institutional theory "examines the processes and mechanisms by which structures, schemas, rules, and routines become established as authoritative guidelines for social behaviour" (Scott, 2004). In relation to understanding corruption, institutional theory brings in the social context and provides a taxonomy for understanding how corruption might become entrenched in organizations, in institutions and in society, despite the existence of an anti-corruption framework (Luo, 2005). Institutional theory considers that corruption is influenced by the character, design and transparency of the political system and its institutions. At the same time, it acknowledges that the relationship between corruption, institutions, political systems, culture, and gender is complex (Debski and others, 2018; Stensöta, Wängnerud and Svensson, 2015).

Another theory that explains the prevalence of public sector corruption is the game theory. This theory borrows from economic literature and seeks to provide rationales for corrupt decisions by public officials. In particular, Macrae (1982) suggests that corruption is part of a rational calculus and an integral and often deeply rooted method by which people take decisions. In this context, individuals face a " prisoner's dilemma", which "illustrates a conflict between individual and group rationality" (Kuhn, 2019). The individual fears a disadvantage if she refuses to engage in corrupt practices while other individuals do not refuse to do so in the same situation. As a result, all individuals obtain some sort of benefit which, however, is always less than the benefit that each of them would have obtained if they refused to engage in corrupt practices. This is illustrated, for example, in the area of public procurement, where participants in corruption include private sector actors that are unsure of the actions of others. The fear of being outdone by competitors acting illegally or unethically thus motivates otherwise ethical companies to engage in procurement corruption.

Another theory that is relevant to this discourse is the modernization theory. The modernisation school of thought was the first attempt to articulate the problem of development in terms of the need to transform the backward "traditional" nature of Third World economies into "modern" economies. Drawing from the historical experience of the Western Europe after World War II, under the Marshal Plan, it advocated the need for accelerated economic growth through an import substitution form of industrialisation, a process seen to entail securing the right quantity and mix of saving investment and foreign aid. Given the relatively low levels of new capital formation in most Third World countries, one obvious policy implication was the need for massive capital investment through foreign aid.

Modernization theorists were concerned with structural change in the economy and the process that had an economy from a state of primitive organization of production to the modem organization of economic activities (Huntington, 1968). Emphasis on the transformation of a traditional society into a modern one suggests that the outcry against corruption amount to a puritan reaction to modernization. In this view, corruption represents a deviation from ethical norms. Thus, looking at corruption from the modernization perspective reflect Volume XXI Issue V Version I 58 ( ) a strong anti-state position which Huntington cited by Abu (2007) summarised best by stating that in terms of economic growth, the only thing worse than a society with a rigid over centralized, dishonest bureaucracy is one with a rigid, over centralized bureaucracy. It is instructive to note that the modernization theory had been replaced with the principal-agent theory by the neoclassical economists. In their view, corruption amounts to principal-agent problem (Abu, 2007). In this case, it is the state which is the principal that entrusts the task of allocation rights to appropriate resources to its agents, i.e., the administrators. This means that there would be no corruption if the state had nothing useful for the private interests to allocate selectively.

Modernisation theories provoked a great deal of criticisms from radical scholars such as Andre Gunder Frank, Claude Ake, Bode Onimode, Shegu Oshoba, Zwingina Silas and others who argued that colonialism and Western capitalism were the two major factors responsible for the underdeveloped nature of Third World countries. The Western industrialised countries developed by exploiting human and natural resources of their colonies and by making them economically dependent on their colonial powers after independence. Neo-colonialism continues as western industrialised countries continue their political and economic domination of their former colonies. The theory states that development in metropolitan capitalism is the underdevelopment in the periphery. The modernisation theory is adopted in this study because the behaviour of leaders in Africa shows that they lack the personality trait and motivation skill that will lead to growth and development.

V.

The Interface between Leadership, Corruption, Governance, and the Theory of Two Public

The concept of leadership evokes several meanings and studies elaborating different dimension of it abound. Leadership is both the adhesive and catalyst which bind citizens of a given country together and triggers their motivation towards the achievement of individual and group objectives. To Bedeian (1986), leadership is the art of influencing individual or group activities towards the achievement of organizational or societal objectives. Also, leadership involves the inducement of followers by the leader to act for certain goals that represent the values and motivation, the wants and needs, the aspirations and expectations of both leader and followers (Burns, 1978).

After a careful examination of the leadership impasses in Nigeria, Achebe (1983) concludes that:

The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything else. The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to its responsibility, to the challenge of personal example which is the hallmarks of true leadership.

Surely, leadership holds the key to unlocking the transformation question in Nigeria, but to sustain this drive, leaders must carry certain genes and attributes that are representative and promotive of this order. These include: (i) The existence of practical, purposeful, visionary, and missionary initiative by the individual, reflecting the objectives of held ideas, values and aspirations, (ii). The existence in an individual of a clear set of ideas, values, aspirations reflecting those of the majority who are the subject or followership, and (iii). The existence of patriotic and nationalistic spirit, transparency and accountability, signs of concrete achievements involving the extent to which intended effects are produced by the leader. These are the core values of good governance.

Many scholars of African descent and politics such as Osaghae (1988) and Ekeh (1975) have traced the problem of leadership, corruption, and governance in Africa to the wickedness of colonialism. Theory of two public is credible not only in the understanding of the state and its predicaments in Africa but also in providing important explanations for the pandemic leadership deficit, corruption and bad governance ravaging African countries. Ekeh (1975), argued that one of the most striking impacts of colonialism was the emergence of two public realms, the primordial and civic public realms which related differently with the private realm in terms of morality. For Nigeria in particular and Africa in general, Ekeh argued that only rights/benefits are expected from the state by its citizens, who owe duties/responsibilities to a native sector. The former forms the basis of an "immoral civic public realm" and the latter a "moral primordial public realm". Therefore, the civic public realm was associated with illegitimate and exploitative colonial rule and had no moral linkages with the private realm. It was an immoral public realm in which cheating the system was considered a patriotic duty (Ifidon, 1996).

The result is that, as the same actors operate in the two realms, the state apparatus is employed to fatten the nest of the primordial public, thereby making corruption, nepotism, impunity and ethnicity to mention a few, the hallmark of the civic public (Osaghae, 1988).

A good citizen of the primordial public gives out and asks for nothing in return; a lucky citizen of the civic public gains from the civic but enjoys escaping giving anything in return whenever he can. But such a lucky man would not be a good man when he channels all his lucky gains to his private purse. He will only continue to be a good man if he channels part of the largesse from the civic public to the primordial public. That is the logic of the dialectics. The unwritten law of the dialectics is that it is legitimate to rob the civic public in order to strengthen the primordial public.

Dudley (in Akhakpe, 2014) made one of the elaborate attempts at explaining the political behavioural and institutional patterns and nature of societies in terms of Weberian postulations on individuals and collective values embedded in their culture. The central thrust of Dudley's perspective is on the impact of the countrywide premium placed on wealth and status on politics. In Nigeria for example, there is the use of political office to enrich one's self. This is not seen however as corruption in as much, as the person involved is seen as contributing such ill-gotten wealth to the welfare and development of his or her community (Osaghae, 2011). In addition, Osaghae (1994) stresses that the material perception of the state has made the political elite to seek for power mainly to enrich themselves and members of their groups. The reason why people seek power is not to further the ends of the people and community but that of self.

The relevance of the theories to this paper is that, it provides a framework for understanding the wide gap between the (leaders) civic public and the (followers) primordial public. These disconnect between the leaders and the citizens are evident. The leaders did not emerge from among the people; rather they were imposed on them by godfathers and political parties, showing clearly what a political corruption is, as defined by the United Nations Global Programme Against Corruption (GPAC) "abuse of power for private gain"; which entails the form of patronage, election rigging, and voters register manipulation, favouritism in the award of contract, procurement scam, tribalism and nepotism in recruitment and promotion, unfair punishment, and sanctions for public officials". Since the elected officials are not accountable to the people, the leaders engage in corrupt act and bad governance with impunity at the expense of the ordinary citizens. On the other hand, due to the nature of the society, a corrupt official remains a good man as long as he channels part of the money he or she stole to satisfy ephemeral yearnings of a few, jettisoning programmes and projects that will improve the life of few people.

T wo o f the exponents of resource curse, Auty (2004) and Ross (2001), observe that since the 1960s, the resource-poor countries have outperformed and grown higher than resource rich countries. Extant literature reveals that oil dependence leads to a skewing of political forces. It concentrates revenues from resources to geographic enclaves and power into the hands of few elites; this reduces their incentive to develop the governance mechanisms that enable general taxation. Empirical studies reveal that oildependent nations especially in developing African countries that have at least 25% of their exports from natural resources are more likely to have conflicts (Bamiduro, 2012). Bamiduro further opines that "resource conflicts seem to be driven by poor governance, greed and corruption." Oil-dependent-rich states often lack basic ethics, transparency, and accountability, and are also characterized with poor people (Abubakar, 2004).

It has become axiomatic that countries rich in natural resources, especially oil and gas, grew slower than those without (Ross, cited in Otaha, 2012). "Major oil producers such as Algeria, Angola, Iran, Saudi-Arabia and Venezuela have experienced fundamental decline in per capita income in recent decades" (Otaha, 2012, p. 85). In 2004, Nigeria's Relative Poverty measurement of Nigerians living in poverty stood at 54.4% but increased to 69% (or 112,518,507 Nigerians) in 2010; while in 2004, Nigeria's Absolute Poverty measurement of Nigerians who were living in poverty stood at 54.7% but increased to 60.9% (or 99,284,512 Nigerians) in 2010 (Yemi, 2012), even though the country earned more than US$340 billion in oil revenues since the 1970s (Otaha, 2012). It is disheartening that of all the oil companies operating in the Niger Delta region, none of them were owned by Nigeria or Nigerians; hence, the so-called national cake is not even baked by Nigerians but by multinational companies owned by foreigners (Otaha, 2012), and this often leads to capital flight to home countries of the multinationals. Observation shows that:

in Angola where 90 percent of government revenues come from oil and two thirds of the population have no access to clean water, good schools, and medical facilities while its autocratic president is the richest in the country; a recent IMF audit reveals that US$4.2 billion oil revenue of Angola went missing between 1996 and 2001. (Otaha, 2012).

Angola is ranked 151 on its Corruption Perception Index (CPI) in 2006. In fact, a majority of resource (oil)-dependent rich countries rank extremely low in the World Bank's Voice and Accountability Index. Most of these governments are reddened in corruption, and their leaders often have a seat-tight syndrome to stay in power for life. For example, Zaire's President, Mbuto Sese Seko, stayed in power for 32 years (from 1965 to 1997; Otaha, 2012). In Nigeria, General Gowon attempted it in 1975, Shagari in 1983, Babangida in 1993, Abacha in 1998, and Obasanjo in 2006; the story is the same in most oil-producing states (Otaha, 2012). In oil-dependent states (as opposed to non-oil dependents), nutrition and life expectancy is often low, child mortality is high, unemployment is often rising, literacy rate increases at decreasing rate, and food importation is prevalent, even though they have the capability to produce food in abundance.

Nigeria with a total dependence on oil revenue is doomed because resource wealth often floods governments with more revenue than they can effectively manage, thereby providing incentive for corruption (Dietz & Eric, 2005). Oil revenues in Nigeria Volume XXI Issue V Version I 60 ( ) tend to be collected by governments in ways that are unusually difficult for citizens to track and unusually easy for crooked officials to divert; hence, some revenue end up in off-budget accounts or the pockets of government officials, and is never heard of again (Ross, 1999). Mehlum and Ragner (2002) observe that governments that depend on oil and that get their revenue from natural resources become less democratic and hence less accountable than countries that rely on other income sources such as taxation. In some cases, governments of resource-dependent countries use their largesse to prevent the formation of independent social groups that might eventually demand political rights (Isham, Pritchett, Woolcock, & Bushy, 2004). Although there are examples of countries that broke the oil curse, others avoided it altogether (Otaha, 2012). The United States, the United Kingdom, Norway, Canada, and so on consist predominantly of states that were already democratic with effective application of the rule of law before oil came along. Another group, however, has successfully moved from oil doom to oil blessed; these include Mexico, Dubai, Indonesia, and so on (Otaha, 2012). Indonesia economy has tripled over the last 20 years. Since the mid-1990s, it has been using its oil receipts to build world-class infrastructural facilities in areas of education, health, agriculture, and social services (Otaha, 2012). The country is growing at 16% per year, and oil, once its primary source of income, is now around 6% of the GDP (Ross, 2001). Three decades ago, Indonesia and Nigeria had comparable per capita incomes. Today, Indonesia is 10 times better than Nigeria. Today, per capita income in Nigeria has declined at a worrisome level because of corruption being sustained by oil revenue.

Corrupt practices are not issues just beginning today in our society; its history is as old as the world (Lipset & Lenz, 2000:3). Most countries around the globe are noted for their area(s) of specialization. Nigeria is best known for her corrupt practices, and this has been on for decades. The country formally came into existence about a hundred years ago and more precisely in 1914 with the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorates by Lord Lugard. According to Fawole (2013:9) there was no objective criterion for the amalgamation except for the administrative convenience of the British colonialist. The Northern and Southern protectorates had little or nothing in common.

From 1960 to date, the word 'corruption' has become the order of the day in every facet of our national life. No wonder that the Transparency International (TI), an organization based in Germany has consistently rated Nigeria as one of the most corrupt country over the last one decade. During the second term of Chief Olusegun Obansanjo as a civilian president, there were rays of hope, as he indicated his willingness to hold the bull by the horn and tackle the "hydra-headed'' monster called corruption, considering several institutions established to combat corruption including the Independent Corrupt Practice and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) which came into being in 2000 and 2004 respectively under the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo to deal with other unethical practices in the high and low places. This is an effort which has not been sustained by subsequent civilian administrations in the country. This is why today, some school of thought believe that the EFCC is more corrupt than when it started because after Mallam Ribadu left the organisation, the institution is yet to win a case levelled against some notorious corrupt officers. The EFCC has been rendered useless by the National Assembly and it is now a toothless bulldog.

Although political corruption is perceived differently from one territory and geographical location to another, the following behaviors are regarded as forms of political corruption in Nigeria: acceptance of gratification; succumbing to inducement and undue influence; embezzlement; conflict of interests, for example, the award of contracts by pubic office holders to cronies, family members, and personally held companies; bribery; fraud; nepotism and tribalism in recruitment/appointment, promotion; kickback on contract; rigging of elections; misappropriation and conversion of public funds for personal gains; procurement scam; leaking tender information to friends and relations; diversion and misappropriation of funds through manipulation or falsification of financial records; payment for favorable judicial decisions, and so on (Azelama, 2002; Ijewereme, 2013; Waziri, 2010).

i. Electoral Corruption This refers to buying of votes with money, intimidation of agents of opposition parties at the Polling units, obstructing the freedom of election, and engaging in ballot snatching and stuffing (Idada & Uhunmwuangho, 2012). It involves manipulation of voters' register, brigandage, and all manner of electoral violence leading to killing and maiming of people. It also involves multiple thumb printing on ballot papers, the announcement of votes in areas where votes were not cast, and winners of elections ending up as the losers.

ii. Nepotism This is a highly biased method of distribution of state resources where a public officer prefers his or her relatives and family members or friends in awarding contracts, job recruitment, promotion, appointment to public positions, thereby ignoring the merit principle; this may lead to the downgrading of the quality of the public service (Amundsen, 1997; Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management, 2010). It also includes exemption of once relatives and friends from the application of certain punitive laws or regulations, and this may disrupt esprit de corps and trust. Nepotism provides room for "preferential treatment of one individual over another, without taking into accounts the relative merit of the respective individuals; this represents nothing but victimization of an individual or individuals" (Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management, 2010).

handwork and societal value. It has lowered the image of academic and non-academic members, as well as governing councils of most public tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Corruption denies access to basic education and health services, fuels political violence, generates popular anger that threatens to further destabilize societies, and exacerbates violent conflict (TI, 2012). It distorts public expenditure, increases cost of running businesses as well as cost of governance, and diverts resources from poor to rich nations. It has frustrated research efforts, derailed administrative goals, instigated organizational goals displacement, and it has also drastically reduced the image of Nigeria in the international communities to mention just a few (Azelama, 2005; Waziri, 2010).

It is extremely appalling that despite the long years of independence, Nigeria, the so called "giant" of Africa is still battling with the problem of good governance. The crop of leaders that have attained leadership position since independence had in one way or the other lacked vision, most of them have been engrossed with corruption and political bickering leading to the enthronement of maladministration and mismanagement of public resources, and consequently economic setback and abject poverty as nation heritage (Lawal & Owolabi, 2012:9). Since Independence in 1960, corruption has persisted and grown enormously in variety and magnitude. Pervasive corruption endures in both the private and public sectors of the Nigeria society; however, the emphasis here is on public sector corruption which contributes more than 70% of the corruption cases in Nigeria and as well, seen as the source of heightened divide between Nigeria' wealth and its poverty (Abiodun, 2012:5). Significantly, Nigeria is among the countries of the world endowed with immense natural and human resources that are capable of improving socio-economic status and living standards of the citizenry; but the reverse has always been the case. In view of this ugly trend, one begins to wonder what kind of superficial "giant" position Nigeria claims to hold in Africa, after almost fifty-three (53) years of independence with nothing to show for it.

Even though no country in the world is corrupt free, corruption in the case of Nigeria has become very worrisome because she has consistently been placed among the most corrupt nations in the world. The iii. Favouritism This is a form of corruption where a public servant gives undue preference or favour to his or her friends, family, and anybody close and trusted in recruitment, promotion, and so on.

This refers to overinvoicing of government contracts or corruption related to purchases. That is, the purchase price of an item is inflated so that the difference between the inflated price and actual price is shared between the person who does the purchasing and the sellers or it is taken by the purchaser alone with the seller conniving. (Azelama, 2002, p. 92).

This is a practice where the management of a public organization deliberately inflates the payroll by including fictitious names to get more subventions for salary. The excess is siphoned by the members of management in connivance with some members of governing councils or boards (Azelama, 2005).

This is a form of corruption where management of a public organization in connivance with governing council or board minister/commissioner bribes some members of the legislature to approve inflated estimate for the institution during budgeting. In a situation where the budget is already approved, the management is expected to give tips or gratifications to the government functionaries whose duty it is to release money to the institutions (Azelama, 2005).

The effects of corruption in Nigeria are outrageous. The effects range from under development, absence of basic infrastructure such as potable water, good road networks, misappropriation of national resources leading to massive poverty, mediocrity in leadership and cluelessness in professionalism, deficient leadership outputs, high unemployment and youth hopelessness, continuous widening gap between the rich and poor, and falling standard of education leading to production of low-quality graduates (Waziri, 2010). Corruption has made students and products of the tertiary institutions suffer from loss of selfconfidence, hopelessness, and loss of confidence in on corruption perception, rated Nigeria as the 143 most corrupt nations out of the 183 countries surveyed (Chukwuemeka, et al, 2012; Lipset & Lenz, 2000:244; Abiodun, 2012).

There are varieties of corruption as they manifest in Nigeria, these include: political, bureaucratic, private, public, materialistic and non-materialistic corruption, petty corruption and grand corruption, systemic and non-systemic corruption, etc (Fawole, 2013:5). According to him, grand corruption, otherwise known as "State Robbery" in the public sector is the main problem in Nigeria. 'State Robbery' is a variety of corruption where members of the political and bureaucratic elite simply plunder the national treasury through brazen theft, or through other ingenious methods ranging from deliberate alteration of documents, facts and figures to make money; outright collection of bribe, the type we heard so much about in the National Assembly, which led to the removal of a Senate President who allegedly demanded and obtained cash incentives from a Minister of Education; deliberate embezzlement of funds, such as is acted out in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to mop up unspent funds before the close of the financial year. Other varieties of 'State Robbery are falsification of contract figures through inflation, over-invoicing, periodic upward reviews of contract sums, a practice that still goes on in MDAs; contract splitting, an offence for which Chief Olabode George, a People Democratic Party Chieftain who was Chairman of the Nigeria Port Authority (NPA) went to jail; fraud, graft, misappropriation and misapplication of funds for personal aggrandisement; payoffs and contract kickbacks; and several others such as profiteering, shadiness, prolificacy, distortion, doctoring, falsification, etc.

Experiences in Nigeria seem to support the view that political and administrative malfeasance feed on each other (Abu, 2007:39). Over centralization of authority, and under or over-elaborated rules of authority is a major contributory factor to governmental corruption. The evil called corruption at the highest level distorts competition by denying the public access to competitive marketplace (Pope, 1996). Also, great inequality in the distribution of national wealth; the reliance on political office as the primary means of gaining access to wealth; the conflict between changing moral codes; the weakness of social and governmental enforcement mechanism; and the absence of strong sense of national community have been identified as other causes of corruption.

As a matter of fact, corruption in Nigeria has resulted to a reduction in the quality and quantity of goods and services available to the public as reflected in poor infrastructures, poor quality of education standards, poor health facilities and high cost of living and rising social insecurity. On the aspect of political development, corruption has often led to the inability of the nation to develop and consolidate its democratic practice as excessive corruption has often led to erosion of government legitimacy, defective leadership input and democratic destabilization through military takeover of government and truncation of civilian rule (Abiodun, 2012; Ugwuanyi, 2011).

There is no doubt that at the root of corruption quagmire in Nigeria is the failure and virtual collapse of governance, the contamination of democratic values, the erosion of accountability procedures, and the prevalence of bad leadership. Thus, the consequences of corruption can be disastrous. Corruption and carelessness are said to be at least partially responsible for the very heavy death toll in the massive earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010. There is no doubt that the scourge of corruption has impacted governance significantly in developing countries where it is mostly perpetrated.

Corruption undermines the legitimacy of government and democratic values of trust and tolerance. Corruption increases the cost of business through the price of illicit payments. It generates economic distortions in the public sector by diverting public investment into capital projects where bribes and kickbacks are more plentiful. Corruption also lowers compliance with construction, environmental, or other regulations, reduces the quality of government services and infrastructure, and increases budgetary pressures on government. Also, some other consequences of corruption include the fact that it can make other people suffer for the corrupt practices of an individual. An example was a situation where the education of a child is stopped because of corrupt practice of people in leadership position who have failed in their responsibility in addressing the education problem in the country (Adesuyi, 2013). The effect of corruption is grave that many organisations have been established to monitor corruption and promote efforts to reduce it in governance globally.

Familoni (2007) and Dike (2003) agreed that corruption causes a reduction in quality of goods and services available to the public, as some companies could cut corners to increase profit margins. Corruption affects investment, economic growth, and government expenditure choices; it also reduces private investment and fuels inflation. Empirical evidence from a number of researches, for example, Bello Imam (2004) shows that corruption contributes immensely to inhibition of economic performance and consequently affects investment and economic growth which is antithetical to national development (quoted in Muhammed, et al, 2008). Moreover, corruption can also upset ethnic balance and exacerbates problems of national integration in developing countries. Familoni (2007) observes that if a corrupt but popular ethnic leader is replaced in his or her position, it may 'upset ethnic arithmetic', the cohorts may revolt, and this may engender the disintegration of the state. Moreover, the legitimacy of a particular government can be destroyed by corruption. It has been a stumbling block to the people enjoying the economic and social fruits of democracy (Muhammed, Ayinla & Muhhammad, 2008:83). Furthermore, corruption is said to have contributed significantly to mass poverty in Nigeria. It has rendered several millions of Nigerians jobless and uneducated. There is no doubt that corruption has been attributed to mass poverty which has been breeding all forms of extremisms in the country, most especially the Niger-Delta crisis and the recent Boko Haram insurgency which has threatened the security, unity and co-existence of Nigeria as a nation-state.

The most damaging effect of corruption is that if left unchecked, it grows, intensifies, and spreads like cancer to vital centres of government with powerful influences on the public. Already, the negative multiplier effect of corruption in Nigeria has manifested in the mass spread of poverty and the nation's unenviable position in the list of poor and underdeveloped countries of the world (Chukwuemeka, et al, 2012). Corruption causes a serious development challenge, in the political sphere; it undermines democracy and good governance by weakening political processes. Corruption in elections subverts accountability and representation in policy making, in the judiciary it suspends the rule of law and in the public service it leads to unequal distribution of services (Dininio & Kpundeh, 1999). Corruption wastes skills because time is often a huge waste to set up anti-corruption agencies to fight corruption and also to monitor public sectors. Above all, corruption diverts scarce public resources into private pockets, it weakens good governance; it also threatens democracy and erodes the social and moral fabrics of a country (Dike, 2008). Within the context of the Nigerian state, it is not as if successive governments have not realized the problem posed by corruption to the socio-economic and political development of the country. Without doubt, successive governments at one point or the other have made series of attempts at combating corruption through series of anticorruption campaigns (Lawal & Tobi, 2006). What is in doubt, however, is what the impact of this anti-corruption campaign is?

The rise of public administration and the discovery of oil and natural gas are two major events believed to have led to the sustained increase in the incidence of corrupt practices in the country. Efforts have been made by the government to minimize corruption through the enactment of laws and the enforcement of integrity systems but with little success. Greed, ostentatious lifestyle, customs, and people's attitudes are believed to have led to corruption. Another root cause is tribalism. Friends and kinsmen seeking favour from officials can impose strains on the ethical disposition of the official as these kinsmen see government officials as holding avenues for their personal survival and gain.

Corruption, though prevalent, was kept at manageable levels during the Pre-independence and the First Republic. However, the cases of corruption during the period were sometimes clouded by political infighting. Azikiwe was the first major political figure investigated for questionable practices. In 1944, a firm belonging to Azikiwe and family bought a Bank in Lagos. The bank was procured to strengthen local control of the financial industry. Albeit, a report about transactions carried out by the bank showed though Azikiwe had resigned as chairman of the bank, the current chairman was an agent of his. The report wrote that most of the paid-up capital of the African Continental Bank were from the Eastern Regional Financial Corporation. In western Nigeria, politician Adegoke Adelabu was investigated following charges of political corruption levelled against him by the opposition. In the Northern region, against the backdrop of corruption allegations levelled against some native authority officials in Borno. The Northern Government enacted the Customary Presents order to forestall any further breach of regulations. Later on, it was the British administration that was accused of corrupt practices in the results of elections which enthroned a Fulani political leadership in Kano, reports later linking the British authorities to electoral irregularities were discovered.

The Government officials in Tafawa Balewa's government in the First Nigerian Republic looted public funds with impunity. Balewa did not take any policy position to wipe out the menace ( Gowon's administration was unashamedly corrupt to the macrolevel, and corruption was not hidden from the public gaze (Lawal & Tobi, 2006). According to Nigerian Tribune August 1st, 1975 (cited in Lawal & Tobi, 2006), his promise to enact anti-corruption decree like other promises was never fulfilled. The level of corruption under Gowon's regime came under intense public scrutiny when Murtala Mohammed became the head of state and set up Assets Investigation Panel (AIP), to probe the governors and other public officers that served under Gowon. The panel indicted 10 of 12 military governors, and so their assets were confiscated. The anti-corruption crusade spread to the entire public service; thus, the purge of the public service led to the retirement and dismissal of more than 10,000 public servants nationwide (Anazodo, Okoye, & Chukwuemeka, 2012).

Accordingly, one would have expected Murtala war against corruption to enthrone deterrence in Nigerian public service. Unfortunately, it is disheartening that the politicians of the Second Republic during Shehun Shagari's administration were not deterred, despite the ignominious ways the indicted governors that served under Gowon were treated. The politicians of the Second Republic engaged in all forms of corrupt and unethical practices of different shades. The period was marked by fragrant abuse of power by virtually all public officers-career and political office holders. The political office holders used their offices to siphon and misappropriate public fund (Lawal & Tobi, 2006).

The military administration led by Major-General Muhammed Buhari who took over power from the Shagari's administration was extremely determined to eradicate corruption from Nigeria through the War Against Indiscipline (WAI) crusade. Various tribunals both at the federal and state levels were instituted to probe the political actors of the Second Republic. The Paul Omu-led tribunal found most of the politicians guilty and sentenced them to long jail terms (Lawal & Tobi, 2006). The Babangida administration that ended the Buhari's administration through a coup d'état on August 27, 1985, did not show any commitment to the anti-corruption drive of its predecessor. Maduagwu cited in Lawal and Tobi (2006) listed the following as some of the highlights of Babangida corrupt practices: The Abacha administration that took over from the interim National Government followed the pace set by the Babangida administration in looting the government treasury. The entire country became an extension of his personal estate within a space of 5 years, amassed so much wealth than the wealth of most countries in Black Africa put together (Ebegbulem, 2012; Ijewereme & Dunmade, 2014).

A total sum of N63.25billion was said to have been recovered from the Abacha family. In fact, parts of the Abacha legendary stolen wealth are still being recovered from his family till date (Ijewereme & Dunmade, 2014). The Abdusalam administration is not an exception from the mass looting of the public treasury. The Christopher Kolade panel set up to review contracts, licenses, and appointment made under the Abdusalam administration came out with shocking revelation. The panel found beyond imaginable proportions that, though Nigeria was already neck deep in corrupt practices, the Abdusalam administration made a mockery of any sense of discipline and probity and at a scale that practically made saints of his predecessors (Anazodo, Okoye, & Chukwuemeka, 2012; Lawal & Tobi, 2006). The panel specifically reviewed 4,072 contracts, 576 licenses, 807 appointments, 768 awards, and 111 approvals all made within 5 months. The panel submitted that the 4,072 contracts cost Nigeria N635.62 billion as against the N88 billion budgeted in 1998, this representing a deficit of N551 billion. The panel also revealed the depletion of the foreign reserve, which at the end of 1998 stood at US$7.6 billion but shrank to US$3.8 billion by May 1999.

In a similar vein, when Obasanjo came to power in 1999, he told Nigerians that corruption was the major clog in the wheel of Nigeria's progress and, until the social menace is eradicated, development will continue to elude Nigeria. Accordingly, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo signed the anti-corruption bill into law that established the Independent Corrupt Practices And Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and Economic and Financial Crime commission (EFCC) that are in the ongoing political dispensation in the Fourth Republic (Aderonmu, 2009;Ijewereme, 2013). Unfortunately, these institutions made little impact in the war against corruption in the Nigerian public sector. For instance, some western diplomats were of the opinion that Nigeria lost between US$4 billion and US$8 billion annually to corruption during the 8 years of Obasanjo's regime (Human Rights Watch, 2007). In a similar vein, Transparency International (TI), scored Nigeria very low for 4 consecutive years; the scale showed that, on the scale of 10, Nigeria scored 1. 6 Corruption became all pervading; electoral fraud common place, personal insecurity and unresolved assassinations characterized his regime just as much as disobedience of court rulings. Many infrastructures were left to decay while he pursued an attempt to stay longer in office by trying to amend the constitution. He pursued to jail or impeachment those governors who did not agree with him using corruption as the weapon: On corruption those who agreed with him were unscathed. Though, he tried to reorganize some arms of government-The civil service and finance.

Obasanjo's administration was characterized by unthinkable greed, hatred for the rule of law and human rights, selective investigation of corrupt public officials, and inefficient handling of the economy (Aderonmu, 2009). Furthermore, the revelation after the end of his government showed that he waived due process for awarding of contracts; he sold government property to himself and his cronies below the cost price (Aderonmu, 2009; Ebegbulem, 2012; Imhonopi & Ugochukwu, 2013; Oluwasanmi, 2007).

In addition, Yar' Adua's government constantly reaffirmed his administration's determination to combat corruption and proclaimed respect for the rule of law and due process, but his actions and body language revealed the contrary (Aderonmu, 2009; Ijewereme, 2013). Yar' Adua's government through the office of Attorney General of the Federation made frantic efforts to (undermine the fight against corruption) prevent James Ibori, the former governor of Delta State, from being prosecuted and jailed. James Ibori was a close associate of Yar' Adua as well as one of the major financiers of Yar' Adua's election. Umaru Yar' Adua forced Ribadu from office just 2 weeks after he tried to prosecute powerful former Delta State Governor James Ibori (Human Rights Watch, 2011).

However, president Goodluck Ebele Jonathan's administration could not show the courage and tenacity to fight corruption in the face of many allegations of corruption perpetuated and reported often about public officials. Recent audit report on Goodluck Jonathan's administration discovered unprecedented ghost employees in the Nigerian Federal Civil Service. The fraud of ghost employees on payroll is also common to many states in Nigeria. Billions of Naira are wasted to fraudsters on monthly bases, and there are more than 45,000 unaccountable workers on the federal payroll alone, and government is spending over N100b annually (Okekeocha, 2013). The most worrisome is that Nigerians have not been informed or given account on what is being done to the perpetrators of this heinous crime. In a similar vein, the board of the Nigerian national Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Minister of Petroleum supervising NNPC, Diezani Allison Madueke, were indicted of corruption; the president sacked the board of NNPC without sacking the Minister of Petroleum. "Mrs Daziani Allison Madueke has been indicted by five different investigative panel Committees reports at different time, yet she confidently remains in charge of the Ministry unperturbed" (Melaye, 2013a, p. 2). This is simply because she has family ties with president Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. An international tax and audit firm, KPMG, audit report indicted the NNPC, Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), and the Ministry of Petroleum of large-scale corruption and absence of transparency. According to Melaye (2013a), "the Farouk Lawal Report of the House of Representative Investigative Committee: Spoke elaborately of unprecedented Corruption between bureaucracy and the marketers of petroleum products" (p.2). The marketers cannot put their hands into government treasury to pay themselves without approval from appropriate authorities such as NNPC, PPPRA, Minister of Petroleum, CBN, and of course Minister of Finance (Melaye, 2013a). It is disheartening that, till date, no government official in these ministries and agencies has been invited by the anti-graft agencies or police on these excessive subsidy scandals (Melaye, 2013a). According to Melaye (2013b), the government of President Goodluck Jonathan is yet to convict one corrupt political official; not one politically exposed person has been convicted of corruption under Jonathan's administration. Corruption is flourishing in Nigeria because there is a complete lack of political will to combat the monster by successive governments, especially President Goodluck Jonathan's administration. Melaye (2013b) is of the opinion that the situation would continue, except the power to appoint the EFCC, and the ICPC chairmen is removed from the president.

New allegations of corruption that have emerged since the departure of President Jonathan on May 29, 2015, including:

Volume XXI Issue V Version I 66 ( ) The current administration of President Buhari can hardly be exonerated from the several scams in Nigeria in recent times. President Muhammadu Buhari came to power in the 2015 elections on the back of two key messages: improving the security environment and reviving the fight against corruption. The Presidency of Muhammadu Buhari has seen major action against corruption in Nigeria. In 2016, the Senate ad-hoc committee on "mounting humanitarian crisis in the North-East" led by Senator Shehu Sani indicted the then Secretary to the Government of the Federation appointed by Muhammadu Buhari, Mr. Babachir Lawal in a N200 million contract scandal for the clearing of "invasive plant species" in Yobe State by Rholavision Nigeria Limited; a company he owns. On October 30, 2017, President Buhari sacked Lawal based on the report of a three-man panel led by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo that investigated him and one other. In 2016, Buhari was reportedly presented evidence that his Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, took N500 million-naira bribe from MTN to help it slash the $5 Billion dollar fine slammed against it for violation of Nigeria telecommunications regulations bothering on national security. MTN fired the staff involved in the bribery scandal. But Abba Kyari was left intact in his position as Chief of Staff to national outrage forcing Buhari to announce the probe of Kyari. The findings of the investigation were never made public.

Abdulrasheed Maina was the head of the task force on pension reforms during the President Goodluck Jonathan led administration but fled Nigeria in 2015 after claims that he embezzled two billion naira ($5.6 million, 4.8 million euros). Despite the fact that an Interpol arrest warrant was issued, he still managed to return to Nigeria, where he was said to have enjoyed protection from the Buhari government. Maina had been fired from his position by Goodluck Jonathan's administration and was put under investigation for corrupt practices but was reinstated and given double promotion by Buhari administration. According to the senate through its committee on public accounts, 85 government parastatals under the present government under the leadership of Muhammadu Buhari are yet to submit their audit reports since the inception of this government. The flag bearer of the corruption fight in Nigeria, the EFCC has responded to the senate committee on public account's claim on the no submission of her account report by the institution and 84 others. The Economic and financial crimes commission denied the report issued by the committee claiming it was not true.

Despite criticism, the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) announced in May 2018, that 603 Nigerian figures had been convicted on corruption charges since Buhari took office in 2015. The EFCC also announced that for the first time in Nigeria's history, judges and top military officers including retired service chiefs are being prosecuted for corruption. In December 2019, the country's controversial ex-Attorney General Mohammed Adoke, who was accused of being bribed to grant oil licenses to Shell, was extradited back to Nigeria from Dubai and was immediately arrested. In January 2020, however, Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index (CPI) still gave Nigeria a low ranking of 146 out of 180 countries surveyed.

The fight against corruption in Nigeria has completely becomes a lost battle. In the First Republic, corruption was 10%; in the Second Republic, it snowballed to 20%; during the general Ibrahim Babangida era, corruption was institutionalized, President Obasanjo's administration strengthened corruption, and for reasons best known to President Umaru Yaradua, he allowed the ICPC and the EFCC leadership to be occupied by corrupt officials (Falana, 2012). Falana further opines that corruption was perpetuated with impunity under President Goodluck Jonathan's administration to the extent that the war against corruption lost completely. According to Falana (2012), "the Auditor-General of the federation disclosed that 4.2 trillion Naira collected by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) was not remitted to the Federation Account from 2006 to 2009." The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative reported that oil companies have failed to pay into the Federation Account about 10 billion dollars from 1999 to 2008. The Nuhu Ribadu-led Petroleum Revenue and Special Task Force revealed that Nigeria has been robbed to the tune of almost 100 billion dollars. The EFCC was led by Ibrahim Magu, untill July 2020 when President Muhammadu Buhari approved the suspension of the acting Chairman, Ibrahim Magu, from office. The suspension follows the investigation of allegations against him, which borders on misconduct and financial irregularities. It was suggested that, the investigation of the EFCC boss was to reinforce President Burahi's administration's commitment to transparency and accountability, adding that the holder of such office must be above suspicion.

All the indicted leaders in the cases of Siemens, Halliburton, and other scandals are walking freely and still dictating who gets what and how in the Nigerian political arena. All the foregoing shows the enormity of corruption and unethical practices in the Nigerian state. The issue is, "What are the major causes of these corrupt practices in Nigeria?" Different arguments have been put forward to explain the pervasiveness of corruption in the Nigerian state. These include poverty, personalization of public office, political culture, and inability of leaders to overcome their colonial mentality with respect of their perception of public office (Lawal & Tobi, 2006). Moreover, the magnitude of corruption in Nigeria since Gowon's regime to Goodluck Jonathan's administration has been attributed to political economy growth of Nigeria by some scholars, that is, the movement from dependence on agriculture in the 1960s to total dependence on oil and oil revenue (which became the major source of Nigerian wealth) from the 1970s, among other factors.

The problem of corruption in Nigeria has become dreadfully endemic and successive Nigerian governments have come to realize the problem posed by corrupt practices to the nation's economic and political development and have at different time devised various means to curb its menace. Without doubt, corruption has permeated the Nigerian society and in the words of Achebe (1988) "anyone who can say that corruption in Nigeria has not yet become alarming is either a fool, a crook or else does not live in this country." It should be noted that Nigeria has very good laws and constitutional provisions to combat corruption but there has been a general lack of implementation of these laws and this is one of the reasons why the nation is lagging behind in its campaign against corruption. Moreover, the leaders and the public officials who are supposed to spearhead this campaign against corruption are themselves unwilling and reluctant to fully commit to the course because they themselves are the masterminds behind the corrupt practices. As such, much is still desired in the fight against corruption in Nigeria, and unless something is done to increase the level of commitment of all the actors in this campaign, the country would continue to experience the adverse effects of this societal ill.

Challenges Several normative and empirical obstacles inhibit the efforts in promoting good governance and fight against corruption in a developing country like Nigeria. In what follows, we shall dwell on these challenges with a view of providing a road map for ameliorating, if not eradicating them.

The spirit of patriotism and nationalism in Nigeria and Africa in general seem to have gone with the attainment of political independence. Ever since then, African leaders hardly pursue the goals of the state but their own personal and sectional interest. To exemplify this, is a statement credited to President Goodluck Jonathan that the dreaded Islamic fundamentalist group 'Boko Haram' has infiltrated his government and nothing much has been achieved in the present administration, led by Mohamad Buhari. This bewildering statement is an indication that some cabinet members are there to pursue interest antithetical to that of the nation, thus, in these circumstances the issue of leadership and good governance remains a mirage.

The materialistic thesis and perception of the state in Africa and its institution is a hydra headed problem that has robbed the society of it leadership and governance essences. The state in Africa is seen as an avenue of primitive wealth accumulation. This notion and virus have affected the conduct of government business and regrettably has crept into the whole society. Banfield (in Osaghae, 1994) argued that the only reason people in this kind of society seek public office is to pursue their material gain and, in the process, neglect public wellbeing and interest. For example, Mobutu Saisasiko a former President of Zarie now Democratic Republic of Congo once told a bewildered nation "that it is not a crime to steal government money, only when you steal, steal small-small, and invest it in the country but you become an enemy of the state when you steal and invest outside the country" (see Akhakpe, 2014).

Yet, Nigeria and most African countries are plural societies with multi-ethnic and religious group. This throws up another problem in areas of representations at the federal, state and local government levels. One of the measures put forward to manage these diversities in Nigeria is the federal character principle. However, whether the principle has done well overtime is a different subject matter. But suffice to say that the application of federal character with tense ethnic relations have vitiated the value of merit with its attendant poor performance and service delivery in the public sector (Akhakpe, 2014).

Policy inconsistency, government instability and over reliance on foreign ideas to tackle domestic problems are common phenomenon and bane of effective leadership and good governance in Africa. Leaders hardly sustain the policies and programs of their predecessors; cabinet reshuffle is often expected because government is expected to be representative of all interest in the country. African leaders pursue nonindigenous policies with little or no knowledge of their application and implications.

While in developing countries desirous of development, corrupt practices by government official and leaders attract death penalty, in Nigeria and Africa in general, instead of tightening the punishment for corruption, it is been weakened by the so called 'pleabargain'. For instance, some former governors who were indicted of stealing and miss-managing state funds escape punishment through this window of the law. The legal frameworks dealing on issues of corruption and bad governance should be redesigned to be no respecter of any one no matter how highly placed while the existing laws should be activated.

Corruption in Nigeria has become so pervasive to the extent that young men and women do not see the essence of doing the right thing or going to school to learn because they see daily how illiterates and halfbaked educated ones control billions of naira while the highly educated once conducting research that is contributing to advancement of knowledge and the society are looked at with scorn. In this context, the people can hardly believe and respect their leaders.

Indeed, the commercialization of religion in Nigeria is now a permanent feature of our religious landscape. One can say with some measure of certainty that most of those who profess faith among the Christian and Muslim worshippers are actually faithless. Both the Bible and Qur'an say the fear of God is the begging of wisdom. Donations are taken from followers without caring how the monies were gotten. Religious titles are awarded to the highest bidders while the universities award honorary doctorate degrees to leaders without questioning the moral credentials of the beneficiaries.

The mass media and professional bodies in Nigeria are not helping matters. It appears a number of them are set up with money acquired through corruption and therefore, see nothing wrong in stealing of public fund. Most professional bodies in Nigeria are concerned about how their members could benefit from what goes on in the polity, rather than ask questions on how public officials openly live above their legitimate income. In other clients the mass media and professional bodies serve as the watch dog and whistle blowers against corruption and bad governance. Is high time we investigate the owners of private newspapers, television, and radio stations across the country with a view to ascertain their sources of the funds.

Flowing from the above points, it is clear why the issues of corruption and governance will for long remain an issue of debate in Nigeria. There is also the issue of imperatives of transformational leadership here. Leadership at the government level is therefore seen as the cause and effect of the country's development predicaments. It would appear that once public offices are personalized, leaders tend to distance themselves from the people they ought to serve. In this context, governance essences are ignored as service delivery, transparency and accountability takes the back burner. People engage in corrupt practices and all sort of unethical behaviour to help themselves. How do we break from the cycle in Nigeria? These we shall address in the section that follows.

The issue of corruption remains a challenge in the development of any society. In order to successfully combat corruption, there is the need for a mechanism that will drastically transform the culture and legacy of corruption. Positive transformation of Nigeria can only occur through addressing the root causes of corruption and through effective implementation of the legal mechanisms already in place. It is important to note that in spite of the efforts by government at all levels, corruption remains a key concern, and sustainable efforts are required through multifaceted approaches to curb the menace of corruption in order to bring about good governance to the populace.

Corruption has been universally acknowledged as antithetical to any development that can be sustained. Nigeria's experience so far in effective governance validates this statement because it has become clear that to combat and prevent corruption in Nigeria, a multi-faceted approach must be adopted. In order words, for corruption to be combated towards ensuring effective governance and sustainable development, it has to be anchored on a new paradigm that stresses the platform of rule of law, justice, equity, truth, honesty, virtue, and integrity.

Institutions of governance once created take a life of their own. Therefore, deliberate attempts should be made to ensure that these institutions are built on sound ethical values and orientations, their operators should be made to go through and imbibe enduring moral training and virtues that can be passed on to future generations in order to guarantee rectitude, transparency and accountability in public service. These can redress the decadence in agencies and organs of government, especially watchdog institutions such as the judiciary, police, and anti-graft bodies.

The establishment of democratic government is an anti-corruption strategy. Theoretically at least, the dispersal of power within the institutions and processes of democratic government should constrain possibilities for venality. The accompanying protection of civil liberties and human rights should make for open and transparent government and provide a check on abuse of power (see Odinkalu, 2010). Competitive politics under-pinned by periodic renewal through elections of the mandate to govern should reward politicians with a credible record of protecting the public resources and interest. Together, these three occurrences -dispersal of power, institutions accountable to government, and competitive electoral politics for periodic renewal of government's mandate -are essential elements of democratic government as an anti-corruption strategy.

In the present era where emphasis is on governance, service delivery, transparency and accountability are the game in town, and everyone need to key into it. As desirous as good governance can be it cannot be brought to bear on leaders by mere slogan. The features of leadership and good governance should be infused into their psyche and made a way of life in the society.

There is need for fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom. However, in Nigeria, the reverse can be seen as the case, as the high number of places of worship (mosques and churches), has increased the incidence of corruption and bad governance. A peep into the activities of various Pilgrims Welfare Boards and Commissions, both the Christian and Muslim ones, will reveal to a keen observer, that corruption is not even a respecter of religion or faith. The religious groups encourage corruption in different forms. Some preach prosperity without accountability.

The Nigerian masses need to regenerate and restore high ethical standards and patriotism. It is important to state that the responsibility for monitoring the fight against corruption in the service fell on the anticorruption desk officers in the Ministries, Department and Agencies, who are expected to be resolute and firm in their action. Also, a situation where the national honours list parades a 'rogues' gallery contradicts a genuine commitment to wage war against corruption. There is need to create an environment that will give room to the emergence of a strong civil society for the promotion of transparency, accountability, and responsiveness in governance. The constriction of all loopholes being explored to perpetrate fraud is strongly advocated. Preventive measures have to be scaled up with more proactive accounting and audit controls in government ministries, departments, and parastatals.

The code of Conducts Bureau should utilize egovernment in order to publish a list of all public officials who have declared their assets as well as those who have not. This would ensure transparency in the assets declaration process and provide valuable information to whistle blowers such as the media and civil society who in the past lacked access to such information. Whistle blowing and protection for the blowers should be strengthened to nip all the negative devices and tendencies in the bud. There is the need to ensure that the anti-corruption agencies in the country are properly funded and equipped to effectively fight corruption.

The public procurement process in Nigeria is greatly flawed and this is one of the areas in which the government needs to step up its efforts through the training of both state and non-state actors who to date have virtually little or no knowledge in the monitoring process and as such cannot determine if the prescriptions of the Public Procurement Act are duly followed. The Nigerian Government must also ensure that information related to public contracting opportunities and the names of winning bidders are at all times available to the citizenry as this would reduce the conspiracy that has plagued the system.

The present administration should invest anticorruption crusade with more momentum by making it an ongoing crusade. Also, the crusade must be holistic and all embracing. All tiers or arms of government and the private sector must be carried along. In addition, attempt should be made to introduce and strengthen where they are in existence, government watchdog agencies-anti corruption bureaus like Inspector General, Auditors-General and Ombudsman (government official appointed to receive and investigate complaints made by officials, etc)-which will identify corruption practices and bring them to public attention. Thus, the authorities should look inwards to revive the EFCC by not appointing police officers as EFCC head. There are retired military officers, such as military intelligence officers from the rank of Brigadier-General as well as retired State Security Service (SSS) directors that are intelligent who can be appointed as EFCC head. Thus, Fadahunsi (2013) is of the view that if we continue to make police officers to head the commission, it will be like asking a cat to oversee a pack of meat in a corner.

The media is important in demanding accountability in government through their ability to investigate and expose corrupt acts; hence freedom of press is an important tool in fighting corruption. Independent and free press will also help to combat corruption by working against the notion of the public that corruption is inevitable, and that important people are free from investigation. The media will be used to Volume XXI Issue V Version I 70 ( ) raise public awareness, expose corruption, and will assist to build a coalition to combat corruption (Olowu, 1993:39). The role of the media is critical in promoting good governance and the fight against corruption.

The reforms of the Public/Civil Service should be implemented genuinely instead of the present window dressing policy issues; in this regard, the involvement of the civil society becomes imperative. The Nigeria's value systems that promote corruption go beyond the frontiers of legal normative propositions to the need for socio-cultural normative standards that will correct the existing value systems. Therefore, the civil society's involvement in the anti-corruption crusade must go beyond the formal engagement of government and its officers in effective governance issues into the arena of challenging the cultural practices and values that "communicate" or "facilitate" corrupt practices.

Orientation and re-orientation of leaders and followers alike should be made a continuous exercise. Best values and practices in globe should be internalized in Nigeria and Africa in general. Indeed, it would appear that the problem has often been the gap between words and action. Nigerian leaders should match their words with action. Be stable and consistent in its policies and programmes. Then, the people will believe the government/leaders and follow suit by performing their obligatory and non-obligatory duties and responsibilities. There should be involvement of civil society and citizens in consultations on national policies and at all levels in the planning and delivery of services. Participation must be informed, institutionalized and inclusive. This way we can prevent the corrupt use of funds and make sure that disadvantaged groups are not excluded from the delivery of vital services.

The culture of a society can develops or hinder their development. The perception of corruption as an amoral act stems from the fact that too many Nigerians still see the state an abstraction meant to brutalize and not to cater for the socioeconomic and political wellbeing of its citizens. This notion can only be jettisoned through effective leadership and good governance. Governments must build checks and balances into different sector's policy and publish flows of money so that, proper monitoring and evaluation can take place. Independent oversight bodies are also needed, but they must have salaried staff with technical expertise and no conflicts of interest.

Corruption has been the focus of considerable attention, hand-wringing and lamentation in and outside Nigeria. Some of the best-known public advocacy and international organizations in the world, including Transparency International -exist to combat it while on the home front we have Independent Corrupt Practice Commission (ICPC) and Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC). We do not claim any special insights on this issue. In addressing the issue of corruption, we propose to reflect our own personal viewpoints and the experiences as Nigerians. Corruption has continued to defy all possible solutions in Nigeria because the cost of corruption is too cheap and the political will to implement anti-corruption laws is absent (Igbokwe-Ibeto & Okoye, 2014). They went further to argue that poorly and inappropriate institutional frameworks are responsible for a significant level of the opportunism that has pervaded the Nigerian state since independence. To North (1990), "institutions are the humanly devised constraints that shape incentives in human exchange, whether political, social, or economic". Institutional change shapes the way societies evolve through time, and hence, is the key to understanding historical change.

It will be difficult to address the problems of corruption and governance in Nigeria in isolation of the rest of Africa. Indeed, leadership failure, corruption and bad governance is not just a Nigerian problem; it is a problem for Africa's for development to which African countries collectively lose an estimated 25 percent of GDP or about $148 Billion annually. Nigeria merely illustrates to scale a problem that every African and indeed developing country also confronts.

Yet, the poor economy of Nigeria must be addressed. There is no gainsaying the fact that there is high rate of poverty in Nigeria. This poverty is linked to so many factors such as lack of employment, underemployment etc. It is a common knowledge that the Nigerian economy has seriously suffered the global economic meltdown which has really adversely affected labour market. This has largely contributed to massive retrenchment at both private and public sectors of the economy. Therefore, as a survival measure, a typical Nigerian has to look elsewhere to meet up with his/her responsibilities. So, when any slight opportunity comes his/her way to embezzle public or private treasury as the case may be, he or she grabs it with both hands.

With effective leadership, eradication, or minimization of corruption to the barest minimum as well as good governance, the Nigerian state will be able to perform the functions of a normal state. In this context, we are referring to the basics of contemporary human existence such as shelter/housing, healthcare, security, food, peace, jobs/employment, education for all, and public transportation.

Also, there should be advocacy for the confiscation of properties of public officials found to be involved in wrongful corrupt acts; death penalty for embezzlement and siphoning of state money abroad; jail sentences without fine option for offenders of corrupt practices and bad governance; cancellation of election results obtained based on rigging and fraudulent acts; disqualification of public officers implicated in election and allied mal-practices; and public disgrace and life jail for corrupt business men and women feeding fat on public fund. Also, civil society in Nigeria should be linked both at the level of ideas and practice. As it stands, there is so much individualism in the operations of civil society organizations. For broader reach and positive impact, "civil society organizations working in different sectors such as reproductive rights and health, environment, human rights, youths and so on, need to be encouraged to work together and to develop common platform for intervention and participation in shaping policies. It is not in doubt that Nigeria has a large number of civil society groups, some claim to be anti-corruption bodies. But it seems some of these civil society groups have been infiltrated by corrupt officials. The infighting and the scramble for the spoils of offices or what can be called 'stomach infrastructure' are evident in many of these civil society groups.

Anti-Corruption initiatives in africa: the National and Regional Experiences

In sharing the African experience in the fight against corruption, it is important to state that there is hardly a country in Africa that has no national policy, institutional and legal frameworks against corrupt practices. There are different types of horizontal and vertical networks measures against corruption at both at national and sub-regional levels, but the challenge has always been implementation and political commitments .

There have been different explanations that underscore the establishment of various African anticorruption partnerships at sub-regional and regional levels. Some of these explanations include the fact that there is a conviction that the fight against corruption will work better if independent states of Africa can provide technical assistance for each other and collaborate against cross boarder crimes and corruption. This conviction among other things made some of the African Regional Economics Communities (RECs), otherwise known as the building blocks in Africa, to embrace first, the fight against corruption, before the African Union. The explanation for the late embracement of anti-corruption fight at the continental level was not unconnected with the fact that the promotion of democratic and good governance was not among the initial objectives of the African Union, when it was Organization for African Unity (OAU). The objectives of the then OAU, amongst other things was to eradicate all forms of colonialism from Africa, promote the unity and solidarity of the AU Member States; promote and intensify their socio-economic and political integration, defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Member States, and to jealously guide their political independence. Others include promotion of international co-operation and respect for the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

have surpassed other regions on the continent of Africa, although, this does not make all the countries in the two regions ahead of other countries on the continent in terms of anti-corruption performances. The East Africa Community has also been active in strategizing against corruption in the region. The region has an association known as the East African Anti-Corruption Authorities (EAAACA). It also has a Protocol on Preventing and Combating Corruption. Other initiatives at the regional level include the establishment of regional network of independent antcorruption bodies.

According to John Ikubaje, (2018), corruption remains a serious problem in Africa. The fact that all the members of the African Union do have all the requisite anti-corruption instruments and institutions, they are not effective a expected. In some of the African countries for example, anti-corruption institutions have become instruments of intimidation in the hands of the ruling parties against members of the opposition parties, thereby losing its relevance and usefulness. John, (2018), cited, in some countries, the findings in the in the reports of the national anti-corruption institutions are perpetually kept on the shelves without a follow-up on their implementation. While some countries have good anti-corruption commission, they are neither independent but operates under the control and dictates of the executives.

Majority of the anti-corruption institutions in Africa are under-funded, as another was of rendering these institutions powerless by political actors according to John, (2018). As stated by John, (2018), African governments must put their resources where their mouths are, to help promote the needed development in their countries and the continent. Additionally, integrity checks are mostly absent in the recruitment of anticorruption workers in some of the African Union Member States, thereby, creating corruption to thrive in the anticorruption institutions. There is also the political enthusiasm as against political commitment. Political leadership embrace anti-corruption decision but many of them are not committed to the implementation of the decisions, thereby making mockery of their anticorruption initiatives. For instance, some of the African Union Member States belong to more than one subregional anti-corruption bodies, but the multiple membership has little or no impact in the fight against corruption in the affected Member States.

Another serious challenge in the fight against corruption in Africa is impunity and lack of accountability. Sone of the past corrupt African leaders have been left untouched and are allowed to enjoy the loots after their terms in office. Also, the Western countries have not helped anyway in fighting against corruption. Majority of the corrupt African leaders have the proceeds of their corrupt practices stashed in some of the developed countries in Europe and America.

The fight against corruption at the sub-regional and continental levels has little or no impact. In some cases, the anti-corruption at the sub-regional and 'Donor intervention in development promotion can be likened to water that is being poured constantly in a basket, which the water is the resources (financial and human) that are being poured in the basket to promote peace, socioeconomic and political development. The basket is the environment or country where the support is being carries out. The holes in the basket, that prevents the basket from holding ton the water is corruption. For the water to stay and make impacts in the basket, the holes must be blocked. Here, corruption is a hole in the basket of development intervention'. John, (2018).

While the international development partners in Africa have done a lot to promote peace, security, health, and education, amongst others, these supports cannot be sustainably retained until the corruption is fully confronted. It is on this note that all development partners working in Africa must incorporate anticorruption in their programmes to confront corruption in the continent.

Finally, a critical analysis of activities that have been outlines, over the years have failed to sustainable interventions that will stand the test of time in the fight against corruption in Africa. Majority of the outlines activities over the years, are one-off interventions and are not in anyway promote sustainable anti-corruption strategies that will bring about an enduring socio-economic and political transformation in Africa.

Corruption is like a cankerworm that easily eats deep into the social and moral fabric of any society or nation. Incidentally, corrupt practices sometimes take place in such a subtle and insidious manner that they may be unnoticed for a long time after they must have taken deep roots. That is why individuals should constantly be on guard in the course of social, business, or political transactions by noting and clarifying uncertain nuances and in particular, making "scepticism" their watch word.

That corruption is a serious menace to effective democratic governance and sustainable development is an understatement. Indeed, corruption is a major factor responsible for the nation's comatose state of underdevelopment despite the abundant wealth. It is the reason why policy makers with executive immunity divert scarce public resources to uneconomic high-profile projects that are detrimental to the provision of simple basic and highly essential projects like investment in education, health and other infrastructures such as good roads, portable water and power supply. The resultant consequences include an impoverished economy with enormous negative impact on the poor. Indeed, because of corruption, the citizens have lost trust in the political system, its institutions and leadership hence the violent clashes and litigations that usually trail election results (Abdulahi, et al, 2012:248).

There is no doubt that good governance in Nigeria has been stagnant due to bureaucratic, political, and electoral corruption and this article has shown that these three types of corruption greatly affect good governance. The conclusion then is that corruption in Nigeria can only be tackled through a systemic approach.

In sum, we have dwelt extensively on the issues of corruption and governance in Nigeria as captured by scholars and social commentators with an attempt at clarifying the intellectual "cobweb" surrounding corruption and governance and the challenges. In addition, searchlight was also beamed on the theoretical framework for a better understanding of the concepts under interrogation. Thus, different theories on the concept of corruption and governance have been espoused as postulated by scholars. An attempt has also been made to establish the interface between Leadership, Corruption, Governance, and development in Nigeria. Leadership deficit, corruption and bad governance have been an endemic disease, which affects the growth and survival of the Nigerian state and Africa as a continent. For the avoidance of doubt, it has been established that corruption can ruin a nation. Corruption undermines democracy and good governance by flouting or even subverting formal processes, reduces accountability and distorts representation in policy making. More generally, corruption erodes the institutional capacity of government as procedures are disregarded, resources are siphoned off, and public offices are bought and sold. The United Nation Human Development Index (HDI, 2011) has put the poverty level of Nigeria to be about 64.7% and as such, majority of the Nigerian population are said to be living under abject poverty.

It is the position of the paper that the most daunting challenges militating against Nigeria and Africa's quest for transformation appears to be seemingly untameable corruption and bad governance. Based on these, we have made some recommendations that if religious followed and adhered to, could resolve the hydra headed leadership, corruption, and catalogue of bad governance problems in Nigeria.

Finally, the paper highlighted a number of challenges which have varied implications on the quest to resolve the transformation question in Nigeria. One of such implication is that, until Nigerian leaders begin to think Nigeria and begin to 'plant trees' whose shades they know they shall never seat in, the quest for good governance and efficacious leadership that could fight corruption and engender sustainable socio-economic and political development will for long remain a mirage.

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