Corruption, Governance and the Politics of De-industrialization in Nigeria

This paper intends a discourse about relationship between corruption and de-industrialization in Nigeria. It seeks to do this by offering a critical narrative of how corruption forged an identity of interests among political and administrative office-holders in adopting and implementing policy measures which tended to de-industrialize the country. The overall effect of all this is not only the closure of many factories and consequent loss of industrial jobs but also dependence of the country on foreign goods of poor industrial quality. Consequently, the Nigerian state embarked on neo-liberal reforms to reverse this ugly trend. Regrettably, these policies would only further add to de-industrialization of the manufacturing sector of the state. In this regard, the study posits that the crisis of development and corruption that ravaged the Nigeria's political economy could be located within the context of these neo-liberal policies. Thus, such policies could be said to be an exercise in futility and has further compounded the problems of corruption and development in the country.