E-Government: A Possible Catalyst for Good Governance in Nigeria?
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Most governments all over the world exist mainly to formulate and implement policies to improve upon the living
standard of citizens. Research has shown that citizens are more likely to support the policies implemented by government
when their inputs are taken into consideration at the formulation stage. However, one of the reasons most public policies
fail and hence manifest in bad governance in developing societies like Nigeria is the fact that citizens lack access to the policy
formulating center of government; either by reason of ignorance due to high illiteracy rate or the avenue for citizens to
contribute meaningfully to the policies of government is non-existing. And since good governance is premised among others
on ensuring that citizens participate in decision-making process of a given country either directly where possible or through
their representatives; it is therefore necessary that citizens should be encouraged to be part of the facilitating team for the
promotion of good governance. This is more likely to be achieved through the deliberate creation of avenues or platforms
such as e-government as a strategy to enable citizens’ inputs into the policies of government. Therefore, this study explores
the current state of affairs on the extent to which the Federal Government of Nigeria has been able to harness the avenue
or platform of e-government as a possible catalyst for the promotion of good governance in the country. This was
accomplished by the examination of the websites of the Federal Government of Nigeria and some of its key institutions such
as, the Legislature: National Assembly (the House of Senate and the Federal House of Representatives), the Judiciary (Federal
High Court and the Nigerian Supreme Court) and Federal Ministry of Information and Culture. The websites of these public
institutions in Nigeria were examined and analyzed based on their practical effect on the day-to-day governance of the
nation. This was carried out through the adoption of descriptive approach with a view to observing the avenues or platforms
created, if any, by the Federal Government of Nigeria and some of its key institutions to give citizens the opportunity to be
involved in the policy and decision-making process in the nation’s quest for good governance. The outcome of the study
revealed that the Federal Government of Nigeria and its key institutions are yet to create the platform of e-government to
enable citizens to be involved in the policy and decision-making process for good governance as evident in the advanced
contemporary societies. If the country must experience and benefit from the opportunities made available globally through
the adoption of e-government platform, the paper recommends that leadership at all levels must take practical steps to
popularize on a large-scale, the adoption and implementation of e-government in the management of government
processes, through the involvement of citizens in the policy and decision-making process, thereby serving as a catalyst for
good governance in Nigeria.
Keywords
H Social Sciences (General), HF5601 Accounting