Public Accountability and National Development: the Role of Nigeria’s Federal Public Service

Abstract

This paper examines the challenges to public accountability, emphasizing the developmental roles of the Public Service in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic. It is common knowledge that no country can rise beyond the level of its public service delivered by the bureaucracy. Therefore, accountability, transparency, responsibility, and responsiveness as platforms for efficient public service delivery positions the federal public bureaucracy as an instrumental purveyor of development. This quest for growth underscored administrative reforms before and during this period of study, with the aim of strengthening accountability mechanisms. This study utilized secondary data sources, anchored on the New Public Service as a theoretical framework and textual analysis which informed the discussion of issues, findings, conclusion, and recommendations that followed.