Corruption, NGOs, and Development in Nigeria

The author examines corruption in Nigeria’s development sector, particularly throughout local non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and argues that the failures of development are too easily blamed on corruption and thus reducing a vast phenomenon to a simplistic explanation. Additionally, the author shows that western notions of Nigeria’s corruption include blaming the shortcoming on Nigerian culture. This attempt at ‘culturally’ understanding corruption blocks a broader and more accurate and nuanced understanding of corruption and thus preventing a study of corruption that investigates the economic and political structures and systems that enable corruption, enrich elites and encourage ordinary citizens to participate in corruption processes. The paper shows that disingenuous political rhetoric about civil society, democracy and development in fact contribute to changing ideals and to a shift in expectations in these same domains.