Democracy, Good Governance and Development in Nasarawa State
Aliyu Muhammad & Goji, Donald Sabastine
Department of Public Administration, Isa Mustapha Agwai 1 Polytechnic, Lafia
Department of Political Science, Federal University of Lafia
Email: fallypinky73@gmail.com, dsgoji@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Democracy is said to generate and sustain good governance and development, but the scenario in Nigeria has left much to be desired, thus, this paper attempts to survey, describe and analysed the nature of democracy, its relationship with good governance
and development in Nasarawa State. The study adopted Relative Deprivation Theory as its theoretical framework. The population of the study area is 1,383,676 as at 2006 population census while the sample size is 400 drawn from the entire population through the use of Taro Yamane formula. The paper employed cluster and random sampling method to collect data. The findings revealed that States that emerged through credible elections are more likely to consult their people in the
decision-making than the ones that emerged through electoral malpractices. The research also concludes that the more democratic State is, the more likely to practice good governance. Finally, the research recommends that, states should adopt a transparent and credible electoral processes and policy in order to conduct a fair and free elections, it also recommends that, government at all level should promote the
spirit of democratic governance which involves the full participation of the citizens in decision making to yield a good governance.
Keywords: Democracy, Good Governance and Development
