Public Sector Accountability and Anti-Corruption Strategies in Nigeria: Challenges and Prospects for Sustainable Governance

Corruption has long been recognized as one of the greatest obstacles to sustainable governance and development in Nigeria. Despite successive governments adopting various anti-corruption strategies, corruption continues to erode public trust, weaken institutions, and undermine service delivery. This article interrogates some accountability lapses in some selected public intuitions and the challenges of public sector accountability in Nigeria. Using a qualitative research method supplemented with secondary data from government reports, journal articles, and institutional publications, the study identifies gaps in implementation, and proposes practical recommendations for fostering sustainable governance. The findings reveal that there are numerous cases of accountability lapses in Nigerin public service and Nigerian Government have engaged in numerous strategies for curbing the accountability lapses. The finding further reveals that lack of audit follow-up, non-challan attitude and lack of prosecution have rendered the government effort to be worthless. Therefore, the study recommends strengthening enforcement of sanction, institutional capacity building, whole-of-system integration, regular audit and political commitment.