PUBLIC EXPENDITURE AND INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF DEMOCRATIC AND MILITARY REGIMES

Abstract

The Nigerian government has over the past decades increased spending on infrastructure in the yearly budget but the level of infrastructural development does not seem to correlate with the rate of government spending. It on this account that we examined the effect of public spending on infrastructure and economic development in Nigeria with the view to compare the extent at which public expenditure on infrastructure influences economic growth during the military regime (1983 to 1999) and democratic government (1999 to 2018). Using the ARDL estimation technique, we discovered that public expenditure on education, public expenditure on transportation and communication (TCM) all have positive but insignificant effects on economic growth while public expenditure on agriculture has a significant positive effect on economic growth in the short run. Whereas both public spending on health services and public spending on road and construction has significant negative effects on economic growth in the short run. However, all these public expenditure variables have no significant influence on economic growth in the long run.  This study concluded that public infrastructure expenditure during the democratic government era (1999 to 2018) is not significantly different from public expenditure on infrastructure during the military regime (1983 to 1999) due to widespread corruption and inconsistent reform policies in the economy and therefore recommended that infrastructural sector development should be prioritized at all levels of government by increasing spending on infrastructure to at least  25%  of  annual  total spending.