Representative Bureaucracy and the Burden of Efficiency in the Nigerian Public Sector

Abstract

Efficiency as a product of optimum engagement and productivity that strings from a balance representation especially in developing federal states with diverse population has been an issue of debate in developing bureaucracies globally. The bureaucracy whether in developed or developing countries is viewed as the mechanism of actualizing public goals, programmes and objectives and as such cannot be under estimated. The peculiarity of the Nigerian state and its bureaucracy in terms of representation of all segments of the union, with a focus through the eyes of the instrumentation of the “value added” narrative is viewed as the main point of this paper. The paper utilizes secondary data and a comprehensive desk analysis was carried out. It was discovered amongst others that, the Nigerian bureaucracy lacks effective representation and that human resource procurement process has been hijacked by corrupt politicians. As a way of policy recommendation, the paper opines amongst others that the Federal Character Commission (FCC) be overhauled in terms of reforms in order to place it in a proper framework to effectively carry out its duty without fear of interference.