Public service and local government

Government · WAEC and JAMB · SS2 and SS3

This topic covers the machinery that actually delivers government, and it is examined through the functions and features of the civil service, the problems of local government in Nigeria, and the case for and against public corporations and their privatisation. Expect at least one essay from this cluster.

What you need to know

The civil service is the body of permanent, paid officials who advise on and carry out government policy. Its features are permanence, political neutrality, anonymity, impartiality, hierarchy, a defined chain of command, and recruitment and promotion on merit through a public service commission.
Permanence means civil servants remain in post when governments change, so that administration continues; anonymity means they act in the minister's name and do not publicly take credit or blame; neutrality means they serve any government of the day with equal loyalty and do not engage in partisan politics.
Functions of the civil service: advising ministers on policy, implementing approved policy, drafting bills and regulations, collecting revenue, keeping public records, running the day-to-day services of the state, and providing continuity of government.
The public service is wider than the civil service: it includes the civil service proper, the armed forces, the police, the judiciary's staff, teachers in public institutions, and the staff of public corporations and parastatals.
Problems of the Nigerian civil service include corruption and bribery, excessive red tape and delay, overstaffing combined with shortages of specialist skills, political interference in appointment and promotion, low morale from poor pay and conditions, ethnic and federal character pressures in recruitment, and poor record-keeping.
Reform efforts have run through Nigeria's history, from the Udoji review of the 1970s, which restructured grading and raised salaries, to the civil service reorganisation of the late 1980s, which made ministers chief executives of their ministries and professionalised the service, and later reversals and adjustments to that arrangement. The recurring aims are professionalism, accountability and performance.
Local government is the third tier of government in Nigeria, established by law with defined functions, its own council and its own revenue. The 1976 local government reform is the standard reference point: it created a uniform single-tier system across the country, gave councils defined functions and a share of federal revenue, and made local government a recognised tier rather than a creature of the regions.
Functions of local government: primary education support, primary health care, markets and motor parks, refuse collection and sanitation, local roads and drains, registration of births, deaths and marriages, collection of rates and tenement charges, naming of streets, and licensing of bicycles, trucks and canoes within the area.
The case for local government rests on bringing government close to the people, applying local knowledge to local problems, relieving the central government of detail, training citizens in political participation, and giving quick response to purely local needs.
Local government in Nigeria is weakened by inadequate and unreliable funding, heavy control by state governments, including control over the joint state-local government account, shortage of qualified personnel willing to serve in rural areas, corruption, the frequent dissolution of elected councils and their replacement with appointed caretaker committees, and uncertainty over which functions truly belong to it.
Sources of local government revenue: the statutory allocation from the federation account, grants and allocations from the state government, tenement rates and property rates, market and motor park fees, licences and permits, fines, rents from council property, and loans where permitted.
A public corporation is a government-owned business or service body created by a specific Act of the legislature, with its own legal personality, able to sue and be sued in its own name, run by a board, and expected to combine public purpose with business efficiency.
Public corporations were created because the undertakings concerned demanded capital beyond private reach, because some services are natural monopolies that would be exploited in private hands, because essential services must be provided even where they are not profitable, and in Nigeria because private indigenous capital was limited at independence.
Their standard problems are political interference in appointments and pricing, overstaffing, corruption, weak accountability because losses are absorbed by government, and monopoly without competitive pressure. These are the arguments that drove commercialisation and privatisation, the transfer of ownership or management to private hands, pursued through the Bureau of Public Enterprises and seen most visibly in telecommunications and electricity.

Key terms

Civil service: The body of permanent, paid officials employed by the state to advise on and carry out government policy in the ministries and departments.
Political neutrality: The requirement that civil servants serve whichever government is in office with equal loyalty and refrain from partisan political activity.
Anonymity: The convention that civil servants act in the name of their minister and are neither publicly praised nor publicly blamed for policy.
Local government: The tier of government established by law to administer a defined local area, with its own elected council, functions and revenue.
Public corporation: A state-owned body created by an Act of the legislature to run a commercial or essential public service, with its own legal personality and board.
Privatisation: The transfer of ownership of a public enterprise, in whole or in part, from the state to private individuals or companies.
Commercialisation: The reorganisation of a public enterprise so that it operates on business principles and covers its costs, while ownership remains with government.

Worked examples

State five features of the civil service and outline four problems facing the Nigerian civil service. (Essay question)

Define the civil service in one sentence first, separating it from the political executive.
Give the features with their justification attached: permanence, which guarantees continuity across changes of government; political neutrality, which allows it to serve any party in power; anonymity, under which officials act in the minister's name; impartiality in dealings with the public; and hierarchy with recruitment by merit through a public service commission.
Turn to the problems and keep each concrete: corruption, bureaucratic delay and red tape, political interference in appointments and promotions, and low morale arising from poor conditions of service.
Add the pressure of ethnic and federal character considerations on recruitment, which cuts against pure merit.
Close with one sentence on reform, noting that successive Nigerian governments have attempted restructuring aimed at professionalism and accountability.

Answer: The civil service is the permanent body of paid officials who advise on and execute government policy. Its features are permanence, which ensures administrative continuity when governments change; political neutrality, which allows it to serve any government loyally; anonymity, since officials act in the name of their minister; impartiality in dealing with the public; and a strict hierarchy with entry and promotion by merit through a public service commission. Its problems in Nigeria include corruption, excessive red tape and delay, political interference in appointments and promotions, and low morale caused by poor pay and conditions, with recruitment further complicated by ethnic and federal character pressures.

Explain four reasons for the establishment of public corporations and three arguments advanced for privatising them in Nigeria.

Define a public corporation, stressing that it is created by a specific Act and has its own legal personality.
Give the reasons for establishment: the capital requirement is beyond private means; some undertakings are natural monopolies that would be abused in private hands; essential services must be supplied even where unprofitable; and at independence indigenous private capital was too small to carry such ventures.
Add the employment and strategic-control reasons where the answer has room.
Give the privatisation arguments: persistent losses carried by the taxpayer, inefficiency and overstaffing arising from the absence of competition, and political interference that prevents commercial decision-making.
Finish with the counter-argument in one line, that privatisation can mean job losses and higher prices for essential services, since the examiner rewards balance.

Answer: Public corporations were established because the undertakings required capital beyond the reach of private individuals; because services such as power and water are natural monopolies that private owners could exploit; because essential services must be provided even in unprofitable areas; and because indigenous private capital was limited at independence. The case for privatisation is that many of these corporations made persistent losses that the taxpayer absorbed, that the absence of competition produced overstaffing and inefficiency, and that political interference in appointments and pricing made genuine commercial management impossible; against this stands the risk of job losses and higher charges for essential services.

The mistake to avoid

Candidates treat the civil service and the public service as the same thing. The public service is the wider body and includes the armed forces, the police, teachers in public institutions and the staff of parastatals; the civil service is only the ministries and departments. Candidates also claim that local government in Nigeria is financially independent; in practice it depends heavily on federal allocation routed through the state joint account, which is the core of the funding problem.

In the exam

Questions here are usually split, so many features and so many problems, and the marks are divided accordingly; give the exact number asked plus one spare and no more, then spend your time explaining rather than listing. On reforms and commissions, name what the reform changed rather than reciting a date you are unsure of. Keep the 1976 local government reform in your answer on local government, since it is the standard benchmark.