POLITICAL ACCOUNTABILITY IN NIGERIAN GOVERNANCE: IMPLICATIONS FOR LONG-TERM DEVELOPMENT
Uganden, Iveren Adoo
Department of Political Science, Benue State University, Makurdi, Nigeria
E-mail: iuganden@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT
The plethora of maladies plaguing the Nigerian political landscape derives considerably from the poor disposition of political leadership to the cardinal democratic requirement of accountability. This stems primarily from a faulty electoral body that is also not accountable to the people. Products of this system are not conscious of public accountability, as they owe allegiance to powerful political godfathers and not the electorate. This cycle of unaccountability has conspired to frustrate long-term development in the country. Issues of misappropriation and embezzlement that have subsisted as cankerworms to the development process are products of a political orientation that disdains public accountability. In order to ensure development in the present and guarantee it in the long-term there must be a committed compliance to the tenets of accountability by political leadership and a proactive demand for accountability by the people.