For most people, including political scientists and Africa specialists, Nigeria is not the first place that comes to mind when one imagines embarking on a case study of good governance. But in her bold first book, Portia Roelofs argues for a new way of understanding this widely promoted goal – one shared by many international donors, African policymakers and ordinary citizens, not to mention numerous scholars. Utilising an impressive body of research, including ethnographic fieldwork, archival study, extensive review of journalistic accounts and a capacious and erudite reading of the relevant scholarly literature, the author makes the case for the pivotal importance of what she calls socially embedded good governance. With the so-called Lagos Model as her focus (an approach pioneered in Nigeria's biggest city after the transition to democracy in 1999, but influential throughout the Yoruba-dominated southwestern region), Roelofs shows how socially attuned governance avoids many of the pitfalls of conventionally dominant strategies, which she labels epistemic and material.

Perhaps the most intriguing – and certainly the most provocative – aspect of Roelofs’ argument is the way she turns influential perspectives on their head. Most concretely, she deconstructs the concept of neo-patrimonialism, one of the dominant diagnoses of Nigeria's – and Africa's – perceived governance problems. Put simply, the neo-patrimonialism diagnosis attributes the failure to achieve good governance, and especially the problem of corruption, to the capture of the state by society. Roelofs suggests that not only is this a Western-centric idea that pathologises African political culture and blames the victims (an argument others have made), but also that this critique obscures positive lessons that can be gleaned by looking at the successes of the Lagos Model. She takes seriously Nigerian citizens’ desires for politicians who are socially accountable (and accessible) to their constituents. In the Lagos Model, citizens prefer and get better results from such officeholders, in contrast to elite thought leaders guiding their people to modernity (as per the epistemic model) or politicians who simply dole out resources in exchange for support (as in the material model – known colloquially in Nigeria as ‘stomach infrastructure’).

Good Governance in Nigeria is a masterful book on several fronts. First, in addition to developing an original argument that is smart and well supported with evidence, Roelofs demonstrates an encyclopaedic knowledge of local, state and regional politics in the Yoruba-speaking states of southwestern Nigeria. Second, I was particularly impressed with the incorporation of so much scholarship produced by Nigerian researchers based at local institutions. The book is a model in this regard, reminding readers how much is missed when only Western sources are used. Third, much of the second half of the book engages expertly with political theory, taking the author's material and her argument about socially embedded good governance and examining what her findings imply not only for conventional concepts like accountability and transparency, but also for theories of democracy and governance.

Specific chapters of the book will be of greater or lesser interest to different audiences. For example, the introduction and conclusion (not surprisingly) take the most overarching perspective and will appeal to students, political scientists and Nigeria specialists alike. Chapters 1, 2 and 3 drill down into the southwestern Nigeria case material. Chapters 2 and 3 in particular will be a dense read for all but Nigeria specialists, because of Roelofs’ amazing grasp of dizzying detail. Political scientists of all stripes will be especially enamoured with chapters 4, 5 and 6, which deploy Roelofs’ empirical material and extend her Nigeria-specific argument to explore the implications for political science scholarship and political theory more generally. All of it is well written, sophisticated and obviously committed to understanding complex and important issues.

Arguably, Good Governance in Nigeria appears at a most opportune time to test its conclusions. Potentially, Roelofs’ case study and its lessons are about to be implemented at the national level. Nigeria's new president, Bola Tinubu, was the governor of Lagos State from 1999 to 2007 and has been a powerful actor behind the scenes ever since. At least in the public's imagination, he was the most important protagonist in the implementation of the Lagos Model. Whether he can make it work for the country as a whole is a question nearly every citizen has a stake in. Most Nigerians will not care about the implications for political theory. For them, the consequences will be anything but theoretical.