Theory of Divine Origin of State and Good Governance in Nigeria

God, who is the originator of all things, had a system of constituted leadership and authority. This is what the theory of the divine origin of states postulates that the State was established by an ordinance of God; and its rulers/leaders are divinely appointed hence are not accountable to any authority but God; this which scholars have tried to disclose as that which affects governance negatively. Good governance is integral to economic growth, the eradication of poverty and hunger, and sustainable development. The mechanisms, processes and intuitions through which authority is exercised in Nigeria to bring about the much sought after growth and development have been part and parcel of the nationƒ??s political history. This, study is an exploratory research that examined the theory of divine origin of state and its implications for good governance in Nigeria. It sought to find out whether the application of the theory of divine origin of state could establish good governance in Nigeria; the shortfalls of governance in Nigeria and its causes. The study revealed that there has been poor governance in Nigeria, which is as a result of poor political leadership and observable flaws in the leadership recruitment process in Nigeria; that the parliaments in the military era had no say in governance and the period was a period of sufferings, fear, turmoilƒ??s, etc. and that the heads of state were seen as gods and tyrants. The study, having established these, ended up revealing that the theory of divine origin of state is a typical example of tyrannical governance which although worked out for a season when ignorance was the rule of the day, is now obscene and can no longer make good governance in this era. The study recommends that Governance in Nigeria should be reformed in line with and reflects the principles of good governance.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Not applicable

The datasets used in this study are openly available at [repository link] and the source code is available on GitHub at [GitHub link].

This work did not receive any external funding.