Civil service reforms in Nigeria: The journey so far in service delivery

Abstract

Nations all over the world are currently in the struggle to better their existence through the process of good governance, and responsible civil service for effective and efficient service delivery. Nigeria is one of such countries. However the kind of civil service bequeathed to Nigeria by her colonial master was alien and narrow in scope, and so not development oriented. At Nigeria independence in 1960, the federal civil service had a staff strength of only 30,000, this increased steadily to the level of 200,000 in the late 1990s due to political patronage. Many unqualified personnel joined the Civil Service which resulted to over sized workforce that absorbed about 87% of the total government revenue. The paper examined the civil service reforms in Nigeria from independence to the present and how they affected efficient and effective service delivery in the country. It is the position of paper that the kind of civil service reform that would tackle these problems should be evolutionary and pragmatic in nature to meet Nigeria developmental needs and the challenges of the modern world.