Public Sector Management in Nigeria: Setting an Effective and Efficient Pace Amid Challenges and Prognosis

Abstract

Recently, there has been calls to resuscitate the machinery of Nigerian public sector administration and governance to make it conform to global standard or best practices, and in such a manner that national development can be achieved. Thus, this paper advocates a need for a result-oriented reforms in the public sector. Utilising a combination of desktop research and secondary data analysis, this study observed that certain ill-conceived reforms and personnel behaviour and practices have combined to constrain effective administration in government businesses in Nigeria and these include: poor governance, inefficiency in resource allocation or utility, inadequate revenue mobilisation and allocation, lack of continuity in policy making and implementation, poor information asymmetry, downed morale, incompetent and inadequate human skills and capacity among others. The paper therefore, recommends that to set the pace for administrative efficiency and effectiveness in the nation’s public sector, certain strategies must be considered: first there must be good governance and reorientation of government, secondly the ecological analysis of national administrative machineries is necessary in order to examine their relevance and efficacy in modern public sector practice; application of market-based management principles in public service delivery should be keyed into, standard ethical behaviours must be entrenched into the public service, human development and capacity building must take precedence in any reform agenda in the public sector; procedures and standards must be redefined or reoriented, effectiveness and efficiency in resource allocation is imperative, and the application of the principles of the new public management paradigm into the public sector can be enhanced so as to facilitate effectiveness, efficiency, profitability and optimality in the public sector.