Good Governance and State-Led Development in Nigeria : Comparative Analysis with India

The World Bank observed that the ability of any country to consistently improve its performance in terms of economic growth and development would need to be dependent on good governance. The Bank identifies six main indicators to measure good governance. They are voice and accountability, political stability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, and control of corruption. In the same vein, a developmental state that integrates these good governance indicators is expected to achieve success. This study looks at the socio-political factors that have led to Nigeria's growth tragedy from independence from the British in 1960. Ethnolinguistic diversity is observed to have led the country into a neopatrimonial state where all the good governance indicators are grossly disrespected and finds that ethnic groups only fight to control resources and power rather than national interest. This research adopts an empirical approach by comparing the economic performance of Nigeria with that of India using the World Bank development indicators and further identifies the relationship between governance indicators and development indicators. The observation or experience shows that even though India and Nigeria are both low income counties, the former's good performance in the governance indicators reflected a consistent and increasing improvement in her overall development indicators such as current Gross Domestic Product (GDP), GDP annual growth, Gross National Income (GNI) per capita, current GNI, Gross capital formation (% of GDP) among others. On the other hand, Nigeria's very poor and erratic governance performance over the years also reflected negatively on her development indicators except the good management of the country's short-term debt outstanding