Governance and Sustainable Development in the 21st Century Nigerian Business Environment

This study is a conceptual review of issues of sustainable development in the 21st century Nigerian business environment with a focus on governance. The paper highlights youth unemployment and poverty as factors of bad governance hindering sustainable development in Nigeria. The work revealed that bad governance in Nigeria has made the business environment unattractive to investors – local and foreign, resulting in brain drain and further increasing the level of poverty and youth unemployment. It concluded that despite the nation’s rich natural resources, and strategies put in place to ensure sustainable development, the Nigerian business environment is unattractive to investors due to bad governance and its chain effects on the national economy. The study recommended a truly autonomous legal/judiciary system that can checkmate the activities of the executive tier of government in Nigeria; and all stakeholders of the Nigerian business environment must see governance as a grass root concept to enable all to discharge their responsibilities with a high sense of duty/commitment, to the sustainable development of the nation