Paper short abstract:

Bad governance is an enduring character of African states. The introduction of ICT to governance in Africa has the promise of engendering administrative efficiency and good governance. Its utility is however limited by visionless leadership, corruption and social infrastructural decay.

Paper long abstract:

The utility of ICT infrastructure in public administration and governance in Africa is at a low ebb and therefore yet to gain popularity. Public administration and governance in most states of the region are marked by inefficiency and poor performance index. In the actual sense, African government and politics remain challenged by poor quality administration, bad governance and lack of electoral integrity. Elections are conducted as wars and they fail to meet the minimum international standards. Elections are wantonly rigged with the consequent destructive violence by the politically aggrieved. Electoral manipulations are facilitated and enhanced by the reliance on traditional electoral processes involving the use of manual processes. The application of ICT infrastructure for the conduct of elections and governance administration is yet to emerge and therefore has not become a culture. The study has three basic objectives. One is investigating the utilitarian values of ICT and electronic infrastructure in governance and their transformative potentials of achieving good governance, political communication/persuasion and electoral sanity in Africa. Two is identifying the socioeconomic, political, moralized ethical and infrastructural challenges confronting ICT-propelled credible electoral administration and quality governance in Africa. Three is generating some affirmative possibilities for transforming the basic limitations to ICT powered governance and administration in Africa.