IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bcp/journl/v5y2021i08p16-29.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Transparency and Accountability in Government: The Nigerian Experience

Author

Listed:
  • Asadu Ikechukwu, Ph.D

    (Department of Public Administration and Local Government, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria)

  • Chukwujekwu Charles Onwuka Ph.D

    (Department of Sociology, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Igbariam Campus, Anambra State, Nigeria)

Abstract

Accountability and transparency have occupied central stage in modern day government as strategies for promoting good governance. As prevailing democratic ingredients in public administration, the concepts have been subjected to diverse interpretations, application and dimensions by scholars, bureaucrats and policy analysts. The study methodically examined the hypothetical underpinnings of the concepts vis-Ã -vis the pragmatic forms and mechanism drawing from Nigeria political standpoint. Pertinent data generated from documents and interview were subjected to contextual-descriptive analysis to demonstrate that accountability and transparency, both in practice and theory, have political, administrative, legal, financial, economic and social angles and can be enthrone through multifarious inbuilt-bureaucratic cum policy measures such as election, referendum, recall, voice, exit, executive-based mechanism, whistle blowing, ombudsman, freedom of information, assembly process and judicial review. To enhance accountability and transparency in Nigeria there is imperative need for grass roots public enlightenment, strengthening of whistle blowing policy and the judicial institution, capacity building and effective use of freedom of information Act.

Suggested Citation

  • Asadu Ikechukwu, Ph.D & Chukwujekwu Charles Onwuka Ph.D, 2021. "Transparency and Accountability in Government: The Nigerian Experience," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 5(08), pages 16-29, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:bcp:journl:v:5:y:2021:i:08:p:16-29
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.rsisinternational.org/journals/ijriss/Digital-Library/volume-5-issue-8/16-29.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://rsisinternational.org/virtual-library/papers/transparency-and-accountability-in-government-the-nigerian-experience/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christopher Hood, 2007. "What happens when transparency meets blame-avoidance?," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(2), pages 191-210, June.
    2. Juliet Lodge, 1994. "Transparency and Democratic Legitimacy," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 330-342, September.
    3. Juliet Lodge, 1994. "Transparency and Democratic Legitimacy," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 343-368, September.
    4. David H. Clark & William Reed, 2005. "The Strategic Sources of Foreign Policy Substitution," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 49(3), pages 609-624, July.
    5. Werner Z. Hirsch & Evan Osborne, 2000. "Privatization of Government Services: Pressure-Group Resistance and Service Transparency," Journal of Labor Research, Transaction Publishers, vol. 21(2), pages 316-326, April.
    6. Gray, Rob, 1992. "Accounting and environmentalism: An exploration of the challenge of gently accounting for accountability, transparency and sustainability," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 17(5), pages 399-425, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Roberts, John, 2009. "No one is perfect: The limits of transparency and an ethic for 'intelligent' accountability," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 957-970, November.
    2. Neuhold, Christine, 2001. "The "Legislative Backbone" keeping the Institution upright? The Role of European Parliament Committees in the EU Policy-Making Process," European Integration online Papers (EIoP), European Community Studies Association Austria (ECSA-A), vol. 5, August.
    3. Štěpán Strnad, 2013. "Crisis of the European Union Legitimacy - No European Demos in Sight [Krize legitimity Evropské unie - evropský démos v nedohledu]," Současná Evropa, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2013(1), pages 123-140.
    4. Wimmel, Andreas, 2005. "Transnationale Diskurse in der europäischen Medienöffentlichkeit: Die Debatte zum EU-Beitritt der Türkei," TranState Working Papers 29, University of Bremen, Collaborative Research Center 597: Transformations of the State.
    5. Mansbridge, Jane, 2008. "A "Selection Model" of Political Representation," Working Paper Series rwp08-010, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    6. Liliana Hawrysz & Jolanta Maj, 2017. "Identification of Stakeholders of Public Interest Organisations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-13, September.
    7. Geeyoung Hong, 2015. "Explaining vote switching to niche parties in the 2009 European Parliament elections," European Union Politics, , vol. 16(4), pages 514-535, December.
    8. Dionyssis G. Dimitrakopoulos, 2005. "Norms, Interests and Institutional Change," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 53(4), pages 676-693, December.
    9. Adrian Kay, 2003. "Evaluating Devolution in Wales," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 51(1), pages 51-66, March.
    10. Christina H. Drew & Timothy L. Nyerges & Thomas M. Leschine, 2004. "Promoting Transparency of Long‐Term Environmental Decisions: The Hanford Decision Mapping System Pilot Project," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(6), pages 1641-1664, December.
    11. Ball, Amanda & Craig, Russell, 2010. "Using neo-institutionalism to advance social and environmental accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 283-293.
    12. Rambaud, Alexandre & Richard, Jacques, 2015. "The “Triple Depreciation Line” instead of the “Triple Bottom Line”: Towards a genuine integrated reporting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 92-116.
    13. Marc Bollecker & Pierre Mathieu & Claude Clementz, 2006. "Le Comportement Socialement Responsable Des Entreprises : Une Lecture Des Travaux En Comptabilite Et Contrôle De Gestion Dans Une Perspective Neo-Institutionnaliste," Post-Print halshs-00769052, HAL.
    14. Robbins, Geraldine & Lapsley, Irvine, 2015. "From secrecy to transparency: Accounting and the transition from religious charity to publicly-owned hospital," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 19-32.
    15. Frederic Bouder & Dominic Way & Ragnar Löfstedt & Darrick Evensen, 2015. "Transparency in Europe: A Quantitative Study," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 35(7), pages 1210-1229, July.
    16. Jones, Michael John, 2010. "Accounting for the environment: Towards a theoretical perspective for environmental accounting and reporting," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 123-138.
    17. Le Anh Nguyen Long & Megan Foster & Gwen Arnold, 2019. "The impact of stakeholder engagement on local policy decision making," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 52(4), pages 549-571, December.
    18. Alexandre Rambaud & Jacques Richard, 2015. "Towards a finance that CARES," Post-Print halshs-01260075, HAL.
    19. Mfon Jeremiah, 2017. "Corporate Social Responsibility Contribution to Environmental Sustainability in Developing Countries: The Accountability Perspective," International Journal of Business and Management, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 13(1), pages 1-33, December.
    20. Carlos Larrinaga & Francisco Carrasco & Carmen Correa & Fernando Llena & Jose Moneva, 2002. "Accountability and accounting regulation: the case of the Spanish environmental disclosure standard," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(4), pages 723-740.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bcp:journl:v:5:y:2021:i:08:p:16-29. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Dr. Pawan Verma (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://rsisinternational.org/journals/ijriss/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.