Open Government and Nigeria’s National Development: A Critical Evaluation

Abstract

Every society seeks constant improvement of quality of life of its population and enhancement of its environment. For Nigeria, achieving national development has been a goal of successive governments, both military and civilian administrations. But that aspiration is yet to be achieved. Extreme poverty, unemployment and inequality have remained high. In fact, Nigeria currently has the largest extreme poverty population in the world. The worry is even whether Nigeria will ever overcome its current state of underdevelopment without government’s transparency. Interrogating the role of open government in achievement of national development was the task of this paper. Thus, it adopted development communication theory as theoretical framework. Data was collated from secondary sources while qualitative descriptive approach was adopted for analysis. The paper found that failure to make government dealings open in Nigeria has deepened corruption. This has, in turn, hindered national development. It also found that the goal of attaining national development will continue to experience challenge if those in power continue to shroud government activities in secrecy. The paper therefore recommended a paradigm shift towards greater openness in government as a way to achieve national development. It equally recommended citizens’ participation in governance as prerequisite for national development. Keywords: national development, open government, corruption, poverty, underdevelopment DOI: 10.7176/JPID/55-02 Publication date: August 31 st 2020