The Civil Service as an Engine of Good Governance in Nigeria

Abstract

It is no gain saying that civil service is central and inevitable to any government and good governance especially. The civil service is important both in policy formulation and implementation, it also gives technical and professional advice to successive government so as to guide the political office holders whose offices are transient in nature while that of the civil servants have some measure of permanence. It is in the light of the above that this paper looks at the civil service in Nigeria as an engine room of good governance. The paper traced the history of Nigeria civil service, the role of civil service in service delivery, the successes, and failure of civil service and most importantly the corruption in the civil service today. The paper is concluding by recommending reorientation of the civil servants, training, and retraining and provision of modern equipment for effective service delivery.

Keywords: civil service, governance, policy, government