Abstract
Every society seeks constant improvement of quality of life of its population and enhancement of its environment. For Nigeria, achieving national development has been a goal of successive governments, both military and civilian administrations. But that aspiration is yet to be achieved. Extreme poverty, unemployment and inequality have remained high. In fact, Nigeria currently has the largest extreme poverty population in the world. The worry is even whether Nigeria will ever overcome its current state of underdevelopment without government’s transparency. Interrogating the role of open government in achievement of national development was the task of this paper. Thus, it adopted development communication theory as theoretical framework. Data was collated from secondary sources while qualitative descriptive approach was adopted for analysis. The paper found that failure to make government dealings open in Nigeria has deepened corruption. This has, in turn, hindered national development. It also found that the goal of attaining national development will continue to experience challenge if those in power continue to shroud government activities in secrecy. The paper therefore recommended a paradigm shift towards greater openness in government as a way to achieve national development. It equally recommended citizens’ participation in governance as prerequisite for national development. Keywords: national development, open government, corruption, poverty, underdevelopment DOI: 10.7176/JPID/55-02 Publication date: August 31 st 2020
Highlights
The real worry is why the standard of living in Nigeria has remained poor. It is more of concern when one recalls that different policies and programmes said to have targeted ending the current state of underdevelopment had been formulated and implemented by successive governments
NBS (2010) affirms that the proportion of Nigerians living in poverty is increasing every year despite the fact that Nigerian economy is paradoxically growing
Its statistics shows that based on the national poverty line, the rate of poverty increased from 35.0 to 38.8 percent of the total population from 2011 to 2016 while between 2011 and 2016, the total number of people living in poverty increased from 57 million to 74 million, which was both fueled by rise in poverty incidences as well as rapid population growth rate
Summary
The liberalists or economic internationalists as they are often referred to view development from the standpoint of quantitative increase in things (such as infrastructural and industrial life of the people) made possible by the capacity of national economy They place extensive emphasis on economic growth or capital accumulation, accentuated by massive physical infrastructure. Path to Nigerian Development, Nnoli (1981) argues that development is first and foremost a phenomenon associated with changes in man’s humanity and creative energies, not in things He says: Development is a dialectical phenomenon in which the individual and society interact with their physical, biological and inter-human environments, transforming them for their own betterment and that of humanity at large and being transformed in the process. A critical question is, where is Nigeria in terms of development?
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
