Korean Journal of Policy Studies

Graduate School of Public Administration, Seoul National University

Korean J. Policy Stud. 2013; 28(1):111-134

pISSN: 1225-5017, eISSN: 2765-2807

Article

Tonic or Toxin? The State, Neopatrimonialism, and Anticorruption Efforts in Nigeria

Osumah Oarhe¹

¹Dr. Osumah Oarhe is a Lecturer in the Department of Public Administration, Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Nigeria. E-mail: osumahoarhe@yahoo.com.

© Copyright 2013 Graduate School of Public Administration, Seoul National University. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Received: Jan 26, 2013; Revised: Feb 01, 2013; Revised: Apr 05, 2013; Accepted: Apr 16, 2013

Published Online: Apr 30, 2013

Abstract

Nigeria is mired in corruption although it has many anticorruption laws, commissions, and agencies. This article, based on secondary data sources, examines the effect of the state and neopatrimonialism on anticorruption efforts in Nigeria. It argues that the contradictions in the character of the Nigerian state and the logic of neopatrimonialism hinder Nigeria’s anticorruption efforts, and recommends a redesigning of the state and reorientation of the mindsets of Nigerians to better enable anticorruption efforts to succeed.

Keywords: the Nigerian state; neopatrimonialism; anticorruption