Good Governance in Rural Development in Nigeria

Rural development practice in Nigeria has been for a quite long time for more than one hundred years that is from pre-Independence to the current time. This paper attempts a time-serious review on Good Governance in rural development practice in Nigeria to see what has changed over a long period of time. Various developments planning period has been examined in relation to rural development practice. The review shows that the greater parts of public efforts of rural development were subsumed under agricultural development which was more exploitative to the rural resources and residents that improve their quality of life. Although relatively improved understanding of rural development and was manifested among policy makers beginning in the late 1980s, the paper urges that such understanding surprisingly did not translate into corresponding improvement in rural development practice because of several factors including weak institutional arrangement, corruption and absence of coordinated practice among competing agencies. A number of recommendations have been highlighted.