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Political Corruption in Nigeria Before Independence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Robert L. Tignor
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Extract

Political corruption is widespread in contemporary societies, and is regarded by some analysts of the Third World as the single most important obstacle to economic development and political integration. Certainly the frequent régime changes which have occurred in Africa in the last several decades have been accompanied by charges of gross administrative malfeasance and promises to introduce honest government. Perhaps no country in the continent has devoted more attention and energy to continuing allegations of corruption than Nigeria. Indeed, from the late colonial period up until the present, critics of those in power have lamented the level of venality, and numerous published reports have catalogued a wide range of iniquities and called for reform.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , June 1993 , pp. 175 - 202
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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References

1 Many of the major contributions in this field have been collected in Arnold J. Heidenheimer, Michael Johnson, and Victor T. Levine (eds.), Political Corruption: a handbook (New Brunswick, 1989).

2 Joseph Nye, ‘Corruption and Political Development: a cost-benefit analysis’, in ibid. p. 966.

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37 Bernard Storey, Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Administration of the Lagos Town Council (Lagos, 1953), p. 49.

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55 West African Pilot, 19 April 1956.

56 Ibid. 29 June 1956, and Pleass to Williamson, 23 April 1956, P.R.O. C.O. 554/1182.

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58 Daily Times, 9 August 1956.

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64 Cmnd. 51, Vol. 10, p. 42.

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83 Colonial Office Minute, 24 December 1953, and Macpherson to Colonial Office, 4 September 1951, ibid. 554/237.

84 Smith, M. G., ‘Historical and Cultural Conditions of Political Corruption among the Hausa’, in Comparative Studies in Society and History (Cambridge), 6, 2, 01 1964, pp. 164–94.Google Scholar Whitaker, op. cit. p. 216, was not so convinced of improvements in local administration.

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