Abstract: The economic problems facing the Nigerian state that started some decades ago have continued to increase despite the current democratic method of governance. Democracy is not only a political concept but also an economic phenomenon for the realization of what people now commonly refer to as the dividends of democracy. It is in this direction that this study seeks to explain why democratic dividends seem to have eluded Nigerians. It concludes that corruption inhibits good governance and by extension the spread of the dividends of democracy. It argues that to stop or reduce corruption, the values must change and the Nigerian must be rearmed morally.