MILITATING EFFECTS OF CORRUPTION ONGOOD GOVERNANCE IN NIGERIA

Abstract
The existence of government is to deliver social services that will make life meaningful and worth living. Local governments as a tier of governments are created to bring government closer to the people at the grass root and for transformation of lives at that level. One of the ways of bringing government closer to the people at the grassroots is through the delivery of social infrastructural, educational and welfare services in a satisfactory, timely, effective and adequate manner. This study is thus, aimed at examining the effect of Corruption on Good Governance in Local Government System in Nigeria. The study argues that the Constitutional mandate of Local Government in terms of “performance” has not been translated into reality due to corruption in the system. Data for the study was generated from primary sources using the instrument of questionnaire, anchoring on ‘Principal- Agent Model’ as a theoretical basis. The data were anlysed using regression model. It was found amongst others that, due to the privileged position of the Public Servants (Agents) to public resources and information, they tend to abuse these privileges to the detriments of the ‘Principals’ (Nigerian citizens). The paper, therefore, recommends that local governments must make effort to overcome corruptions that have caused them to avoid their performance. It is only by this effort, can the local governments be positioned to render social infrastructural, education and welfare services in a timely, effective and sufficient manner to the citizens

(Keywords: Corruption, good governance and local government).