CHAPTER ONE
- INTRODUCTION
- BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY:
Corruption is a world-wide phenomenon which has been in societies throughout history. It has caused political and economic instability in societies and it has also led to social conflict and violence in the local government sector and also to the society at large. Corruption has been identified as one of the major problems confronting effective local government administration in Nigeria.
According to Harsh (1993), corruption is a practical problem involving the outright theft, embezzlement of funds or other appropriation of state property, nepotism and granting of favors to personal acquaintance. Furthermore, he said corruption involves the behavior which deviates from moral and constitutional requirements. Also, Odey (2002), contextualized corruption in Nigeria as the air which every living person breathes in naturally, he said corruption in Nigeria has been so naturalized that many of us becomes corrupt without making any effort and often without knowing it. Despite the availability and expenditure in the extremely large amounts of foreign exchange derived mainly from Nigeria’s oil and gas resources, economic growth has been weak and the incidence of poverty has increased. It is estimated that Nigeria received over
$22 billion from oil export between 1981 and 1999. Yet the number of Nigerians living in abject poverty, that is, on less than $1 a day doubled between 1970 and 2000 and the proportion of people living in poverty rose from 36% in 1970 to 70% in 2000. With the above quotation, it is seen that corruption within Nigeria is the main cause of this problem.