Causal Agent of “Japa Syndrome”: Nigerian Youths in Search of Human Security

Abstract

Nigeria is lacking on most of the indices of governance let alone good governance since independence. Indeed the connection drawn between pursuing constitutional government and observing this governance yardstick when measured in the last ten years of civil rule falls short of the ideals. Not only is the public service inefficient, it has been tampered with and politicized in the last ten years making it inefficient and bureaucratic; the judiciary is all but independent and in the years 1999 to 2007, it reached its lowest ebb in terms of enforcement of decisions while the framework for enforcing contract has been politicized; the country has ranked high in corruption in the administration of public funds as demonstrated by the power (Ajiboye, 2011 cited in Onoja, 2013); pension and oil subsidy probes and her consistent rating on Transparency International’s corruption perception index (Corruption Perception Index, 2011); the absence of an independent auditor and a less corrupt legislature since 1999 facilitates the perpetration of act of corruption that has impoverished the citizens while the press has remained relatively free even as it pursues it own agenda. The tendencies of regimes to set agenda and goals for meeting the expectation of the citizens for development is itself part of the corruption of the system. This enhances insecurity as it destroys the tenuous faith of the people in governance.