ISLAM, POLITICAL LEADERS AND MISMANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC FUNDS IN NIGERIA

There are three arms of government in Nigeria namely, executive, legislatures and judiciary. With the exclusion of the last category the first two always get themselves into power through the conduct of election which by this,they have become political leaders. Islam considers leadership as a trust and not as an avenue for self-enrichment, extravagancy and spending of public funds without justification. The public funds are always under the watch and control of the leaders especially President and state governors, instead of utilizing the funds to provide quality education, portable and clean water, stable electricity, good roads, maintenance of security and safety of citizens, etc. but diversion and mismanagement of the funds become rampant nowadays. The aim of this article is to draw the attention of the leaders who mismanaged public resources to cease from this ungodly act and to remind the perpetrators about the consequences of doing so. The methodology adopted in this article is the use of relevant literatures both from library and internet. This research paper is important in the sense that it would serve as a consciousness-raising to the leaders, followers and the researchers in handling the public funds with trust. The findings of the study reveal that some state governors uses public funds for personal gain especially by saving them in the banks to accrue the interest. We recommend that public funds should be utilized appropriately by all the leaders without compromise while those that mismanaged the funds should be forced by the law to repay the money and be punished in accordance to the provision of law.