Corruption and The “Crisis of Legitimacy”: A Social Contract Analysis of Nigerian Governance
Keywords:
Social contract, Corruption, Legitimacy crisis, Nigerian governance, Afro-communitarianismAbstract
Nigeria’s persistent struggle with corruption, governance deficits, and insecurity is frequently described as a crisis of legitimacy. This paper argues that the core of this crisis is a failure of the social contract and systematically analyses which social contract theory, Hobbesian, Lockean, or Rousseauian, best diagnoses the problem and offers a normative framework for reconstruction. Drawing on a comparative philosophical analysis of Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, alongside contemporary scholarship on Nigerian governance, the paper demonstrates that each theorist illuminates distinct dimensions of Nigeria’s legitimacy deficit. The paper argues that a reconstructed social contract must integrate Hobbesian attention to security, Lockean commitment to rights, and Rousseauian emphasis on participation, while being adapted to Nigeria’s communitarian traditions through an Afro-communitarian framework. The paper concludes that Nigeria requires a renegotiated social contract grounded in security, rights protection, participatory governance, and communal values, transforming the relationship between citizens and the state from one of coercion and alienation to one of trust, accountability, and shared flourishing.
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