Participatory Governance And Sustainable Development In Nigeria’S Cross-Ethnic States Of Imo And Akwa Ibom: Turning The Lens Of dem0cratization On participati0n
Godwin O Unanka Prof
Dept. Of Political Science, Imo State University, Owerri – Nigeria
Paschal Igboeche-Onyenweigwe Ph.D
Dept. Of Political Science, Imo State University, Owerri – Nigeria
Juliet A Ndoh
Dept. Of Political Science, Imo State University, Owerri – Nigeria
Keywords: Democratization, Participatory Democracy, Participatory Governance, Sustainable Development, Cross-Ethnic States
Abstract
While it remains fanciful for most countries to claim or aspire to be democracies (as government of the people and by the people), not much scholarly effort has been devoted to finding out if the people in ethnically/culturally diverse Third World countries, participate and/or desire to participate in governance. Assuming that participatory governance is more likely to be a viable system of governance for attainment of sustainable development, this paper examines the relationship between participatory governance and sustainable development in two cross-ethnic states of Nigeria – Imo and Akwa Ibom: (1) To find out if and why the people desire participatory governance, and if there is any ethnic variation in their perceptions; (2) To determine how the people perceive the potentials of participatory governance in the achievement of sustainable development. Using descriptive-survey and correlational designs, the study found that (1) Across ethnic lines, people desire participatory democracy/governance because the existing representative democracy is perceived to be bad/corrupt/corruptive; and (2) Participatory governance is perceived to have potentials/preferred more for attainment of sustainable development at the local/community level. This potential for sustainable human and environmental development is perceived more in Imo than in Akwa Ibom. This paper therefore recommends: (1) Expanding the scope of this study nation-wide, and (2) that policy efforts should be put in place to establish community-grown participatory system of governance (COMPAG) at the local government levels to set the pace for Nigeria’s chances in attainment of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 2016-2030).