The Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative and Corruption in Nigeria: Rethinking the Links between Transparency and Accountability

Abstract

The identification of corruption as the development problem in resource-rich African countries has in recent years led to the emergence of a dominant perspective that suggests the link between transparency and accountability as a strategy to address corruption and other aspects of 'the resource curse'. This chapter makes two inter-related contributions to the literature on transparency. First, it suggests that the strategy of linking transparency and accountability as a cure for the resource curse is both problematic and potentially misleading. Secondly, MoI points out that a core challenge confronting the analysis of transparency - and therefore its usefulness - is whether the assumed link between transparency and actual improvement on the wide range of issues for which it is often adapted on the ground is incorrect. The chapter suggests that the Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has at best been ineffective in the fight against corruption in Nigeria. Keywords:accountability; Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI); resource-rich African countries; transparency