REFORMING THE NIGERIAN CIVIL SERVICE PERCEPTION SURVEY ON: ISSUES IN SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTATION

Abstract

The Nigerian Civil Service has been variously described as the centralprocessing unit, engine room, bulwark, fulcrum and depository of government policies. Success in the implementation of public policies therefore is largely hinged on the efficient and effective performance of the onerous role entrusted by government.s objective of service delivery by the Civil Service, its architecture, in order to strategically reposition it, for efficient service delivery in-tandem with contemporary best practices. Unfortunately, experience in Nigeria, and commentaries, allude to the widening gap between policyobjective achievement and intention. Critics of the undesirable situation ascribe it to the myriad of inadequacies, chief of which include policy disarticulation, poor implementation, weak monitoring and general inefficiency. To the rescue therefore, government embarked on reforms aimed at improving the capacity of the Civil Service, for effective performance, inthe changing times. In answering the question as to why reforms in the Civil Service had been largely unsuccessful in Nigeria, this study titled ¡°Reforming the Nigerian Civil Service: Challenges in Successful Implementation¡±, examines the imperative of redesigning the architecture and re-engineering the machinery of the civil service. The objective of course, is to reposition it for better performance in the 21st century and beyond. Underpinned by Structural-Functionalism and Systems theories, the study adopted primarysurvey method, with a sample of 1200 employees drawn from ten of the existing federal ministries. Chi-square analysis was employed in testing the hypothesis of no statistically significant discrepancies between observed and expected outcomes. This study examines the major impediments, adopting content analysis, primary survey and simple percentage analytical methods, to provide insights into the challenges of reform implementation. In conclusion, the study advances policy options for improvement.