CORRUPTION, HUMAN RIGHTS’ ABUSE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: CRITICAL REFLECTIONS ON NIGERIA’S ANTI-CORRUPTION STRATEGIES

Abstract

The paper examined how the failure of anti-corruption strategies has led to pervasive corruption and human rights abuse in Nigeria. It made use of documentary research and employed content analytical approach. It contended that corruption is pervasive in all its forms and has fueled fragility, violent extremism, organized crime and conflict in Nigeria. it is further argued that corruption’s pervasiveness in various forms has provided fertile ground for human rights abuse by security forces. The findings indicated, among other things, that Nigeria’s anti-corruption strategies have been ineffective and inadequate due to haphazard, non-comprehensive and selective application. Hence, corruption has undermined the ability of government to provide public goods and services in requisite quantity and quality, reduced public trust in government and increased poverty levels in the last twenty-one years of democracy in Nigeria. It recommended a broad-based elite consensus on the crucial need to eliminate corruption from the country’s governance space. It is also imperative for developed countries to genuinely take a stand on corrupt leaders in Nigeria by turning away questionable monies that always found its way into advanced economies, a tendency that incentivize corrupt leaders.