This paper evaluates the impact of good governance on rural development in Niger State. The problem investigated is stimulated by the expectation of the people for good governance in democratic era. The specific objective of the study include determining the extent to which the government archived the tenets of good governance, finding out the impact of good governance on rural development and examining the constraints of good governance in achieving rural development. Data for the study were generated from both primary and secondary sources using the instrument of observation, questionnaire, published and unpublished material as well as the internet. Data were analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The descriptive tools used include tables and simple percentages while the inferential tool used is the spearman rank correlations. The study revealed that, good governance has not provided rural development. More specifically, there is low service delivery, low rate of adherence to rule of law, lack of transparency and accountability, existence of high rural poverty, decay in rural educational system, inadequate water and road infrastructure as well as inadequate health facilities. The study also revealed poverty, corruption, poor judicial system, need for excess wealth as constraints for good governance. It was therefore recommended that, there should be institution of integrity, transparency and accountability in governance, there should be improvement in social services and there should be measures to check misgovernance and mismanagement.
Keywords: Good Governance, Impact, Rural Development
