Using the political settlement framework to analyze external promoter's anti-corruption efforts: the case of RoLAC in Nigeria (2017-2023)

Abstract

Corruption undermines ethical universalism, and institutional capacity, eroding democracy and exacerbating governance challenges, especially in developing countries. Multilateral efforts, such as the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) have been employed to tackle this menace in international fora. Such efforts emphasize capacity building, particularly in countries like Nigeria, where governance issues persist despite significant resources. Aligned with these efforts of institution capacity building, the EU-funded RoLAC program between 2017 to 2023 sought to strengthen governance and combat corruption in Nigeria. However, the country’s Control of Corruption Index stagnated at -1.1 during this period, reflecting limited progress. To explain such trend, scholars have increasingly moved away from traditional approaches like donor coordination, which offer limited insights, toward examining the domestic realities of target countries, particularly within the European Neighborhood Policy (Börzel et al., 2010; Börzel and Pamuk 2011; Börzel and van Hüllen 2014; Kralikova, 2022). However, this perspective remains relatively underexplored in Sub-Saharan Africa, especially in Nigeria. This gap is significant, given that Nigeria is among the largest recipients of EU governance funding outside Europe (Hackenesch, 2016, p.26). Informed by political settlement scholarship which matches the target country’s political and institutional dynamics with good-fit instruments (Levy, 2014; Muhhina, 2023; Roy, 2017), this study examines the impact of policy design elements, precision of targeting, involvement of actors, and degree of coerciveness, on the RoLAC program. Using qualitative coding of documents and expert interviews, the findings reveal that reliance on comprehensive, government-driven, and highly coercive policy instruments was ineffective in Nigeria's fragmented political landscape and weak institutional context, hindering RoLAC's success. These findings emphasize the practical necessity of aligning policy designs and tools with the unique political and institutional dynamics of target countries. External promoters like the EU should adopt tailored policy instruments to achieve meaningful governance improvements, ensuring compatibility with the local context for sustainable reform outcomes.