Department of Public Administration, Faculty of Management Sciences, Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos, Nigeria
Online published on 14 November, 2013.
Nigeria's democratic project has been under perpetual threat since 1999 when the country returned to democratic governance especially as a result of high prevalence of corruption. There is no doubt that crime of corruption in government threatens the moral integrity of a nation and hampered development, this thus make the topic of discourse very interesting especially looking at the global effect of corruption on democracy and development generally. This study shows that political and bureaucratic corruptions have grave implications for democratic stability and sustainable development in Nigeria. It is argued that democratic stability will be difficult to attain as long as corruption remain pandemic and unchecked. This study examined critically the effects of corruption on democracy and development. It argues that high scale corruption may have very harmful effects on democracy and development. Finally, the paper discusses the moral imperative of democratic consolidation in Nigeria, and the argument it advances is that without this imperative, instability will pose as a feature of Nigerian democracy. This study concluded that corruption be deterred and punished in order to enhance democratic participation of citizenry and effective service delivery.
