BUREAUCRACY AND CHALLENGES OF GOOD GOVERNANCE IN NIGERIA
1Eme Okechwukwu Innocent and 2Onwuka, Chukwujekwu Charles
1Department of Public Administration and Local Government, University Of Nigeria, Nsukka
2 Department of Sociology Caritas University, Amorji-Nike, Enugu
Email: 1okechukwunncnt@yahoo.com, 2onlyceejay@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT
State bureaucracy is thought to bolster development and good governance by providing fair mechanisms for social provision in the third world. In Nigeria, where bureaucratic ethos are unfamiliar and imperfect, clients of social provisioning express less support for their bureaucratic institutions than government. This paper theorizes bureaucracy from two major perspectives: Weberian and Marxian. Also, it assesses various definitions of governance and good governance. The paper goes further to identify the reasons that account for the abysmal performance of Parastatals and agencies of government. Among these reasons are under-funding, spoils system of recruitment, politicization and corruption among others. All these have affected efficiency and effectiveness in the Nigeria public service delivery and good governance. In effect, the paper concludes that these have slowed down the processes of socio-economic and political development of Nigeria which can only be resolved when bureaucrats become more pragmatic in their understanding of what constitutes good governance.