CORRUPTION AND MILITARY EXPENDITURE IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The effect of corruption on military expenditure inter-alia include diversion of developmental funds, increased spate of insecurity which is well established in extant literatures; however, empirical evidence are quite few; hence this study was undertaken to establish the empirical relationship between military expenditure and corruption. To carry out this study, secondary data were sourced from The World Development Indicators (2023) of the World Bank. The study adopted ex-post research design in line with theoretical underpinning of Neo-patrimonial theory to test the hypotheses that there is no significant impact of corruption on military expenditure in Nigeria. The dependent variable for the study was military expenditure; while financial probity, good governance, corruption control, and macro-economic environment were used as the explanatory variables. The ARDL model was used as the estimation technique. From the analyses of data, it was discovered that corruption control, financial probity and good governance had significant effect on military expenditure in the long run. The Test for causality showed no direct causality between corruption and military expenditure at 5% level of significance. The post-estimation results showed there was no significant violation of econometric assumptions. Based on the findings, it was recommended that concerted efforts should be made by the government to curtail corrupt practices in governance; the government should ensure probity in the use and management of its appropriation budget so as to ensure maximum compliance with its provision and follow due process in any procurement policy that enhances transparency and accountability; and Lastly, the government should enshrine and imbibe the tenets of good governance as it will produce a positive spill-over effect on budget management and impact on the economic environment in the long run.