Abstract

This paper looked at the challenges facing Nigeria s democratic institutions with particular reference to accountability which has been regarded as the alpha and omega in democratic governance This is because any government that lacks accountability lacks everything as accountability provides opportunity for checks and balances between and amongst the various democratic institutions This paper revealed that there is absence of accountability in almost all the institutions of democracy in Nigeria which had led to the high degree of corruption witnessed in the country in recent time The paper concluded that until and unless Nigerian leaders see accountability to the citizens as an important factor in the governance of the nation Nigeria will continue to remain under developed economically and politically and will be very far from the democratic destination Theoretically the approach taken in this research is to recognize the political institutions as organs through which political activities are carried out on behalf of the people The approach also focused on how the relationship between citizens and these institutions provide a principal-agent related result Methodologically this paper adopted qualitative method of data collection for its analysis