The Challenges of <i>Statecrafting</i> in Nigeria: A Focus on Selected Anti-Corruption Public Policies and Institutions

Abstract

Statecrafting as an informed and organised process of the state to ensure effective governance using the instrumentations of public policies, laws etc., executed by and through agencies/institutions of government cannot be underestimated. Effective governance is also in combatting corruption as a social problem in Nigeria with debilitating consequences on the growth and development of the country. By this, successive regimes in Nigeria have enacted several legislations and established institutional frameworks to tackle corrupt practices, but the menace remained endemic and unabating but continued to grow with sophistications. This paper attempt to explore the dynamic pursuit of anti-corruption campaigns in Nigeria via appraisal of two selected policies and institutions as a new approach to the scourge and discourse. It was discovered that anti-corruption policies and institutions are ridden with shortcoming not limited to static, old and passive laws and policies, inadequate autonomy of the institutions, political interference, illegitimacy of policies, paucity of fund etc. The paper concluded that statecrafting is unlimited to states' roles in providing and ensuring socioeconomic and infrastructural development alone but until governance ensures a system of public probity where the vulnerable poorest and weakest of the people enjoy and benefit what the invincible wealthiest and most powerful ones also enjoy. It recommended several further reforms and deliberate constitutional strengthening and empowerment of anti-corruption policies and institutions so that efficient and effective governance is entrenched in Nigeria's development.