Management of Change and Innovation in the Nigerian Public Service
Abstract
The civil service is always known to be conservative and status-quo oriented and incapable of transcending the cosmetic refurbishing of routinized policies and activities. Thus, any reform or innovation introduced in the civil service is always given a cool and half-hearted welcome and in most cases out right resistance. This has been blamed as one of the major causes of poor service delivery in Nigeria’s public sector. This has made many governments in power, both military and civilian alike to attempt a reform of the public service by introducing new policies and innovation in order to place the service in a better pedestal to render effective service to the people. These reforms have been largely unsuccessful due mainly to inherent structural, administrative and attitudinal shortcomings in the service. This study believes that these shortcomings can be corrected if the public service is properly re-structured, administratively combed and attitudinally re-oriented to see the public service as service to the fatherland and not service to the colonial masters- a belief that was previously held by early generation of government workers in the country. Also there should be infusion of private sector mentality in the running of the public service. Training for aspiring public servants should be adequately laced with business sector courses so as to make them efficiency-conscious. Government may consider public – private – partnership in the rendering of most services as is obtainable in most parts of the developed world such as Britain, Australia, Canada, Germany, etc. We cannot afford to be left behind in this new and welcoming arrangement.
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