ABSTRACT
This research work examined administrative reforms
and public service efficiency in Nigeria using Enugu state (1999-2003) as a
case study. The study held that administrative reforms had moral contents in
that, they are seeking to create better and responsive civil service by
removing faults and imperfections in Enugu State civil service and generally in
Nigerian civil service. The information used in this study were collected from
both primary and secondary sources. The primary method or sources of data
collection included the use of a research instrument, (the questionnaire) and
interview. Some research questions were asked as guide to the respondents in
order to elicit first hand information on the subject matter. The questionnaire
contained twenty two structured questions designed in both open and close ended
style. In addition, the questionnaire was validated and administered
accordingly. Secondary sources of data collection on the other hand, included
textbooks, journal, government documents and internet materials. The study
formulated two hypotheses to guide the data analysis using simple percentage,
tables, pie chart and chi-square statistical method for data analysis. The data
analysis revealed that; administrative reforms aim at creating a responsive and
efficient civil service in Enugu State. The findings revealed that administrative
reform programmes on Anti-corruption, Public Procurement, Due Process, Service
Delivery Initiative, Performance Improvement Bureau, Budget Monitoring and
Price Intelligence, Human Resource Management programmes yielding good results
towards improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the Enugu State civil service.
The results further revealed that high incidence of bureaucratic corruption and
poor service delivery are among the key challenges militating against administrative
reforms programmes in the Enugu State civil service. It is based on these
findings that the study recommended that more efforts should be directed
towards eradicating corruption in the Enugu State Civil Service and generally
in the Nigerian Civil Service in order to reposition the service to be goal
oriented. Also there is need to provide the civil servants with modern
facilities in order to strengthen service delivery among others. Staff
motivation should be enhanced as a way of stimulating high work performance in
the civil service.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title page – – – – – – – – – – i
Approval Page – – – – – – – – – ii
Certification – – – – – – – – – iii
Dedication – – – – – – – – – – iv
Acknowledgment – – – – – – – – – v
Abstract – – – – – – – – – – vi
Table of Contents – – – – – – – – vii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study – – – – – – – -1
1.2 Statement of the Problem – – – – – – – -3
1.3 Objectives of the Study – – – – – – – -7
1.4 Significance of the Study – – – – – – – -8
1.5 Scope and Limitations of the Study- – – – – -9
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW AND METHODOLOGY
2.1 Literature Review – – – – – – – – -11
2.2 Hypotheses – – – – – – – – – -63
2.3 Operationalization of Key Concepts – – – – – -63
2.4 Methodology – – – – – – – – – -64
2.5 Theoretical Framework – – – – – – – -72
CHAPTER THREE: BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON ENUGU STATE
3.1 The Geographical Location of Enugu State – – – – -75
3.2 People Culture and Religious Beliefs of Enugu State – – – -76
3.3 Population Distribution of Enugu State – – – – – -77
3.4 Political Life of Enugu State People – – – – – -81
3.5 Economic/Commercial Activities of Enugu State People – – -85
3.6 Educational Institutions in Enugu State – – – – – -87
CHAPTER FOUR: DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS
4.1 Data Presentation – – – – – – – – -88
4.2 Finding – – – – – – – – – -115
4.3 Discussion of Findings – – – – – – – -116
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Summary – – – – – – – – – -120
5.2 Conclusion – – – – – – – – – -122
5.3 Recommendations – – – – – – – – -122
Bibliography
Appendix
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Public service all over the world is considered a veritable agent of national development as a result of its inevitable role in the implementation and execution of the state (government) policies. It is in this line of thinking that Okeke (2001:166) promptly points that:
No matter the policies, no matter the resources available, there has to be the requisite or reliable or proper administrative apparatus for these policies, for these resources to translate into concrete achievements, concrete services and concrete good for the people and the government of the political unit of interest.
In the above assertion, what is implied is that public service forms a benchmark for the accomplishment of national development goals. To accomplishment the national development goals, public service must be efficiency in its role. However, in Nigeria this does not seems to be the condition or what is obtainable from the public service, which has performed below the expectations of uplifting the national development. Nwatu, (2005:354) in an assessment of the Nigerian public service stated that:
Public services in Nigeria over the decades have witnessed a sick-baby status which has lethargically hinder public services from performing towards national development goals.
As Soludo(2004:86) similarly noted, the result of development in the past decade has been a weakened public service; persistent deficits financed by domestic and external borrowing, creating a high debt service burden; the breakdown of the traditional instruments of control, leading to corruption and misappropriation of funds; the high incidence of ghost workers; poor costing of programmes and projects; a large portfolio of abandoned and ongoing projects; and the mushrooming of institutions, especially inefficient and wasteful public sector. In other words, he argued tendentiously, that the failure of public services sector in general and the economic crisis of the past decades, coupled with the present Nigerian stunted economic development that led to the quest for solutions to national public service problems. Ezeani (2005:124) also stated, “the Nigerian civil service was a British creation and therefore a replica of the British civil service”. According to him, it was established to provide a conducive socio-economic and political environment for the advancement of the British imperialist interest. Therefore, the colonial civil service was more interested in resource exploitation than substantial and qualitative improvement in the welfare of the people.
Despite some modifications here and there, since Nigeria’s independence in 1960, it still remains an uphill task trying to divorce the Nigerian bureaucracy from its colonial mentors’ vision. The Nigerian civil service continues to serve as an instrument of underdevelopment. Consequently, it has failed to act as an effective instrument for the socio-economic transformation of the country due to incompetence, pervasive and institutionalized corruption, legthargy, etceteera.
Consequently, many reforms have been carried out by successive governments in Nigeria with the aim of meeting the needs of the generality of Nigerian population. Indeed, Nigerian civil service has had over eight administrative reforms ranging from Gorsuch Reforms (1954), Mbanefo Reforms (1959), Morgan Reform (1964), Elwood Reforms (1966), Adebo Reforms (1971), Udoji Reforms (1974), the 1988 Reforms and Ayida (1997/98) Reforms Okotoni (2004:107) and Okoli and Onah (2000:173). On the other hand, Okotoni (2004:107) and Ezeani (2005:135) observed that from Nigeria’s independence in 1960 to 1994, seven Commissions or Panels have been set up to look into the problems of the public service and make recommendations on ways to improve its performance. However, these reforms were unsuccessful necessitating other reforms of the service.
Since 1999, the Federal Government, under the leadership of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, is under no illusion about the urgent need to effect the necessary reforms that will address the problems of the civil service and make it efficient and effective Nnalue (2002:45). In a similar note, Musa (2001:2) puts thus:
The government has embarked on measures to reorient the Nigerian public service to new Administration’s expectation of it and to reestablish old civil service values of loyalty, integrity, dedication and competence through the introduction of some administrative reforms at the federal, state and local government levels. From the above viewpoint, Ede (2005:56) and Dauda (2006:22) stressed that public sector reforms in Nigeria is policy strategy that aims at reviving the efficient and effective performance of Nigerian public service through tackling corruption, strengthening accountability, providing quality human resource management and improving infrastructural development in the public service to increase service delivery. It is against this backdrop that this study intends to investigate and assess the administrative reforms and the efficiency in the Nigerian public service mainly from 1999-2003.
