Public Administration In Nigeria: Issues, Challenges And Prospects For National Development

Abstract

The role of public administration in any country’s development cannot be overemphasized. This is because the nature of a country’s development is dependent on its public administration. In other words, public administration is a tool for national development. This explains why virtually all countries of the world particularly those interested in development have been consistently reforming their public administration systems to position them to contribute meaningfully to their development. Public administration in Nigeria has witnessed many vicissitudes right from the pre-colonial, the colonial and the post-colonial eras. The history of the country, the environment and some events around the world has greatly influenced public administration in Nigeria. The paper found out that the challenges facing public administration in Nigeria such as multi-ethnicity, corruption, poor remuneration of public servants, epileptic power supply, among others have negatively affected public administration in Nigeria, hence its seeming weakness in helping to a large extent the country to achieve the much needed development. The data for the paper were collected through secondary means and analyzed using the historical and descriptive methods. The paper adopted the systems theory as theoretical framework. In order for public administration in Nigeria to be in the stead to contribute meaningfully to national development, the paper recommended among other things that merit should be the determining factor in recruitment and promotion of public servants, there should be adequate remuneration for public servants to motivate them to do their work satisfactorily and the power sector should be fixed to boost public service activities.