Essay Case

growth. Corruption reduces the efficiencies of the operations of the market economy and a loss

First, it is important to define what corruption is. The term, “corruption” covers a broad range of human actions,

The background of the situation is essential to understand its full impact From the way Nigeria was colonized, it was clear from the start that it would bode ill for the future inhabitants of Nigeria. Beginning in the 19th century, the British started to make their presence felt along the coast. In earlier

Corruption is a complex political, social, and economic anomaly that negatively affects developing and developed countries. It weakens democratic institutions, holds economic development, widening the rich-poor gap and certainly leads to governmental instability. The World Bank definition of corruption states that “…the abuse of public office for private gain”.

The military elites made the situation even worse by staging coups and making a mockery of democracy in Nigeria. The military era was marked by corruption, ineptitude and confusion. It drove Nigeria into many problems including economic problems, poverty, and ethno-religious conflicts until the 1990s. The military continued intervening because they believed the civilian leaders were inept and indecisive.

Corruption is something very common in the world today. This corruption has seriously affected the economy and resulted in misappropriation of public resources. Many place policies have not changed the situations because of lack of commitment by government in enforcing the set policies. Corruption is defined as the abuse of power for personal gain. People who are in the politics become corrupt because of greed; they want the public resources to satisfy their own needs. This term is very broad, and people perceive it differently, and thus politicians and civil society have a different definition of the term. Although there are some practices that have been defined to constitute corrupt practices, still corruption is extraordinarily broad and

Political- economy is a complex term, consist of politics and economy. So at first we have to know what politics is and what economy is before discussing political economy.

In the world, just like crime, corruption is a problem that is in most of the society, which causes the breakdown of social classes. In the first place, the government does not generate aid and prevention mechanisms for poverty and unemployment. Therefore, the personal wishes of the governors cause inequality, and they do not promote equity between social classes. Poverty also occurs because the upper class accepts corruption, for they are benefited and want to make every decision for their own benefit without thinking about the needs of the community, and that makes a weak and poorly organized government. Nelson Mandela says, “A nation should not be judged by how it treats its citizens with a better position, but by how it treats those who have little to nothing”. In the same way, the inequality of opportunities present in the social classes by government creates a lack of economic development. On the other hand, many poor families lack resources because they begin to grow and they only have one child, if not five or more, which cannot be easily maintained. Even so, that does not justify government actions by not generating a space for inclusion of all society in politics and other situations. But, everyone wonders how these phenomena cause crime, and it is because when a person does not have what it takes to live and cannot find work in a legal way, they try to find an easy and quick way to make money.

Nigeria is an Agricultural and oil rich nation but characterised by Political instability, corruption, poor

The internal factors can also include the attitudes and mindset of the people. Factors such as greed and ignorance have greatly undermined the levels of development due to things the embezzlement of public funds, the ‘free-rider mentality,’ and the dishonesty of those in office who opt to constantly undertake trips to foreign nations for routine medical checkups rather than provide such hospitals in the countries they lead. Umez (2004) writes regarding Nigeria that the people have illusions to that encourage such activities; “that corruption in everywhere and that Nigeria is still a young country when compared to the US which took over 200years to get to where it is today.” As such, it is grueling to develop a country when the people still see the current situation as fine and justifiable and this is what has contributed to the crisis of development.

In addition to the importance of corruption in the policy agenda, there is emerging consensus in academia, empirically as well as theoretically, that corruption has detrimental effects on society on different levels. Odell (2010) describes it as a ‘systematic disabler’ damaging economic and human development and adding

The remote causes include but not limited to the following: the Kano Riot of 1953; the national census controversy of 1962; the general election crisis of 1964; the Western Region election of 1965; free expression of tribal sentiments in political campaigns; the tendency to suppress opposition in politics, domination of Northern Nigeria in their own regime by the southerners; introduction of the Northern oligarchy into the administration of Nigeria; desire for each regional party to control the centre; the introduction of Decree 34 by the Ironsi’s government who intended to make Nigeria a Unitary State.

The negative economic impacts of corruption have grown rapidly, and major international organizations have claimed that corruption hinders economic growth (world bank 2006). Although there are claims that corruption is harmful to economic growth, economists have not really agreed with the argument from a theoretical point of view. Theoretical studies suggest that corruption may counteract government failure and promote economic growth in the short run, given externally determined suboptimal bureaucratic rules and regulations. As government failure is itself a function of corruption, however, corruption should have

Political economy means the study of different economic theories and methods that influence political ideology. In a broader sense, political economy is the nexus between economics, law and politics and how concerned institutions work to develop in various social and economic system, such as socialism, capitalism, and communism, and also is an systematic approach or analysis of how public policy is formulated and implemented. (Investopedia, 2016)

According to Adam Smith “Politic al economy is a branch of science of a statement or legislature concerned with providing a plentiful revenue or subsistence for the people, supplying the state or commonwealth with a revenue sufficient for public service” So we can tell that political economy is about 1) Regarding to the economy role of the state 2) Interaction between political and economical process. 3) Based on property and wealth, distribution of political power.