CORRUPTION AND MALADMINISTRATION: THE MAIN CAUSES OF POVERTY IN NIGERIA

Abstract

There is no section of government in Nigeria that is corruption free, be it the executive, judiciary, legislature, private sectors etc. Some individuals are deeply involved in corrupt practices. That is why people say that corruption is a way of life in Nigeria. It has devastated the economy to the extent that the government of the day cannot do without borrowing and no plan of paying the debts. A time will come when government will find it difficult to pay its workers. The truth is that if government of the day decides to take decisive effort in recovering the looted funds and use it judiciously, Nigeria will be better again and the level of poverty will reduce drastically. Furthermore, if government should do the needful and not being chosen in fighting and punishing the culprits, people will turn a new leaf but if reverse is the case, things will continue to get worse by the day. This looting has caused more havoc not only to the government and economy but also to the poor masses who finds it difficult to feed one square meal per day. The paper examined the failure of government to listen to the yearnings of the people and also punish the offenders without which, Nigeria cannot progress politically and economically. Therefore, with the use of comparative phenomenological method of  analysis, this paper proved government efforts not good enough and there was need for government to go back to the drawing board to tackle corruption and maladministration in order to reduce poverty to the barest minimal.