Abstract
The public service of any nation is conceived as a driver of policies and programmes of government that is aimed at promoting the welfare and well-being of the people and the corporate existence of the State. It is against this back-drop that the return to civil rule in 1999 was seen as an opportunity to stem the tide of socio-economic and political decline in Nigeria. However, more than a decade and half of democratic rule, the citizenry still wallow in abject poverty, insecurity, unemployment, electricity power supply, poor medical care and shelter, corruption, feeble enforcement of transparency and accountability, exclusion of the citizenry from decision making and legitimacy crisis. With the use of political participation theory, the paper observed that the public service is still largely disconnected from the people that it is meant to serve. In most cases it pursues its self-interest rather than the public good. This largely accounts for its assumed abysmal records bad governance in the delivery of democratic dividends across the country. The paper made far-reaching recommendations on how to bring the country out of this unpalatable situation. These include among others: the promotion of core-democratic values, prioritization of professionalism in the public service, capacity building for public servants, promotion of the new public management principles, zero tolerance for corruption, political stability, participatory decision making and promotion of distributive justice. It concluded that regime change also demands change in the attitude, structure and operational dynamics of the public service in order to promote good governance in Nigeria.
Highlights
The public service of any nation is the hub that keeps the governmental machine running and ensures that policies and programmes of government are persuaded and realized
Indepth interview method will be used to elicit views of top public servants and the political elite in the present democratic dispensation
The immediate result of all these is the failure of the service to prop up the legitimacy of the government in power, execute developmental policies and programmes faithfully to improve the material conditions of the people, ensure security of life and property of Nigerians, create an atmosphere of inclusive decision making, respect for the rule of law and constitutionalism, transparency and accountability in governance, among other goals or ends of the political society (Henry 2007, Dibie 2014, Akhakpe 2016)
Summary
The public service of any nation is the hub that keeps the governmental machine running and ensures that policies and programmes of government are persuaded and realized. Experiences have shown that while there are well thought and properly codified rules, laws and ethics of administrative governance, public servants appear to lack the innovativeness and creative instincts and minds to domesticate and actualize these body of ordinances for the good governance and development of the polity It is against these backdrops that scholars have opined that moving forwards, public servants should embrace innovative and creative style of management well attained to societal growth, development and social well-being of the people (Maduabum, 2014 and Yusuf and Idowu 2017). This has made it necessary to emphasis the sub-type of good governance that implies the management of state or government resources for effectiveness and equitable distribution of public resources
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