Political authority and the Nigerian civil service.
Date
1977
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Anambra State: Fourth dimension publishers,
Abstract
The Nigerian social environment; The emergence, Growth and the changing phases of the federal and state governments and their civil services; Federal-state civil services: Planning economics and social activities; Federal-state civil services and plan implementation.
Description
In examining the nature of public authority and the civil service in Nigeria, Dr. Nwosu investigates how successive regimes in Nigeria sought to create and develop legitimated political authority and structures which have in turn shaped and influenced the development and role of the Nigerian civil service and its capacity to induce economic development through national planning. His subject is of special interest not only because the creation as well as consolidation of legitimated national authority is an important goal of state building, but because the civil service in a developing country like Nigeria occupies a unique position in the formulation and implementation of national development plans. Dr. Nwosu’s penetrative and incisive study discusses various parameters in Nigeria’s social environment that attenuate the emergence of a legitimated national authority and also detract from the effectiveness of the civil service. Dr. Nwosu argues that given Nigeria’s resources, the success of state building can only be guaranteed, if the state through the civil service demonstrates effectiveness in economic development and in granting payoffs to the various sectors of the society. Although the book focuses attention to Nigeria, it poses theoretical and practical issues and questions which are relevant to the study of state authority and bureaucratic organizations in other African countries. Though Dr. Nwosu is a political scientist, his work cuts across other academic disciplines and should certainly be of great interest to students engaged in the study of modern Africa, organizational behaviour, national planning and implementation.