Nigeria’s Expensive Politics and Democracy: The Bane of Good Governance

Abstract

The performance of Nigeria’s democracy coupled with its styled politics and governance has raised concern over its sustainability and survivability. One area where the democratic system in Nigeria has remained shamelessly scandalous is in the area of the expensive cost of managing the democratic structures of the state and the people that run them. The view being implied in this article is that Nigeria’s style of democracy with its expensive and corrupt tendencies is frustrating and inhibiting good governance. The extent of Nigeria’s expensive governance and politics is manifested in wasteful spending on personnel cost of political office holders such as Ministers, commissioners, special advisers and other executive and legislative aides who in most cases get paid without performing justifiable functions and responsibilities. Similarly, security votes which are appropriated and used by federal and state governments discretionarily have become conduit pipes for draining our national wealth. The suffocating impact of the high cost of governance on our national life has made it to assume a national emergency dimension. This paper therefore emphasises the need for government across all strata to reduce the cost of politics and governance, block all revenue leakages and channel the country’s wealth and resources to productive ventures so as to entrench good governance and set the country on the path of development. The paper recommends the discontinuation of appointing the ministers of state, the scrapping of security votes and the adoption of a unicameral legislature with a part-time arrangement among others as strategies for reducing the cost of governance. Keywords: politics, democracy, expensive, good governance, cost