Constitutionalisation of Public Service and Administration in Africa

Abstract

‘Modern African constitutions’ produced by the recent wave of constitutional reforms that swept across Africa generally transpired in the constitutionalisation of public service and administration. Public administration is any institution with operations aimed at applying, enforcing or fulfilling public policies and programmes or undertaking public service duties as well as regulating the conduct of public servants. Public service is any service or public-interest activity provided by government under the authority of the relevant administration. Heightened by national legislation, the quest to promote democracy, good governance, human rights and development in the government structures emerged to be inevitable. By today, most countries have constitutions that sets up their governments’ organisations, structures, managements, regulations, duties, disciplines and defines the relationships between public entities, the interactions between these entities and individuals seeking public service, more particularly, making provision for the manner in which different divisions of government interact and function together.