DEMOCRATIZATION OF PUBLIC BUREAUCRACY IN NIGERIA

IMPLICATIONS FOR CIVIL SERVICE EFFICIENCY

Abstract

The heterogeneous composition of the Nigerian state has since its amalgamation generated a lot of tensions among its constituent ethnic nationalities. There have been cut throat competitions and distrust among them as each struggle to get higher share of our common wealth. In an effort to end the menace and encourage national consciousness and integration, successive governments have introduced far reaching policies among which are the federal character principle and quota system. The implementation of the policies has cut across both the political and administrative spheres of the Nigerian state. The policies have therefore, been fingered for inefficiency, ineffectiveness, redtapism, rot, etc that characterize the federal civil service. This paper is therefore, a bold effort to examine the effect of federal character principle and quota system on the efficiency of the Nigerian civil service. To achieve this objective, qualitative research design was adopted as content analytical technique was applied. The study is anchored on Representative Bureaucracy theory. The study reveals among others that the abuse of federal character principle and quota system in the federal civil service is significantly responsible for inefficiency, corruption, nepotism/favouritism, indiscipline, etc in the system. We however, recommended as follows: that the application of federal character principle and quota system should be discontinued in the federal civil service but should be strictly restricted to political appointments which should reflect the heterogeneous character of the country; that there should be restructuring of the Nigerian federation to help take the steam out of the federal civil service. This is believed to reduce to the barest minimum the intense competitions to dominate the federal civil service by members of a given ethnic nationality, etc.