Budget Implementation and Good Governance in Nigeria

Abstract

In this twenty-first century, budgets, as an integral component of constitutional democracy and have become a prerequisite for good governance. Apart from promoting transparency and accountability in public fund management, budgeting is also a fiscal instrument for self-assessment. Post budget review activities are use to gauge overall performance. This places a lot of emphasis on the need to ensure its proper implementation. Nigeria has intimidating, top class financial experts/technocrats, who have drafted some of the best annual budgets in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. Unfortunately, this has not driven Nigeria up the ladder of development. Poor budget of implementation has resulted in a form of public governance bedeviled by unemployment, poor public infrastructures, the lack of public accountability etc. Consequently, the cost of doing business in Nigeria has been on the increase. This has discouraged investors and limited the availability of foreign capital for a sustainable national development. The major objective of the study was analyze the relationship between budget implementation and good governance in Nigeria, using the former to enhance the latter. Data collected from secondary sources were critically analyzed, using indicators such as economic efficiency, technical efficiency and operational efficiency. Analysis showed that certain factors such as gross corruption, lack of oversight function, delays in implementation, unrealistic goals etc have not enabled budget implementation to maximize good governance in Nigeria. To remedy the situation, certain recommendations were proffered to bridge the gaps.