Imperative of Good Management Systems: How Nigeria's Public Service can Evolve

For some time now, I've been learning about the imperative of efficient management systems. It is simply unimaginable and downright unrealistic to think one can achieve a task as gargantuan as managing processes and people at the same time, especially without a well-trusted support system. Even super-humans need support sometimes. Little wonder why bureaucratic systems of more developed societies are now being structured for acclimatising to global administrative realities of the 21st-century - Provision of Public Value - done through the creation and maintenance of a cooperative and accountable work culture.

No sooner had we come to this truth than we had to include revised aspects of new management theories and public service delivery models in our MPA and PGD curricula. We just had to. One doesn't need to take more than a panoramic glance at most public enterprises in Nigeria to discover that there are quite a lot more issues than the usually lamented infrastructural decay. It is hard to tell if the structural deficits in the public sector are anything compared to the more troubling challenge of capacity mismatch, or worse still, capacity unmatch, that dis-animates almost the entire public bureaucracy in Nigeria.

In Nigeria's public service, there are too many people doing nothing, too many doing too little, and too few doing too much. The worm of Bureau-pathology is gradually eating up the last thread of our public service existence and we barely even realise it yet! Those who have realised this problem have haplessly clamoured for a reformed public service but which is usually met with a deafening silence from the government and other relevant stakeholders, however, what most reform enthusiasts hardly take into consideration is that you cannot reform what you haven't built, much more, restructure it!

The sooner we begin to have a rethink of how our administrative systems can be better organised to deliver more efficiently in a fast automating world, and more feasibly, the more exposed our public managers are to current management thinking and core value systems that are supportive of a viable development culture, the better our capacity for taking on 'wicked problems' in our society through the agency of the public service will become.

I look forward to that day when every public official in Nigeria can adapt to the ethos of Public Value Management and demonstrate sufficient ability to deploy disruptive ideas and mechanisms in solving the everyday social problems we face in this part of the world. Perhaps that time is NOW. Perhaps that time starts NEXT WEEK WEDNESDAY.

This article was written by Tobi Adewunmi, Technical Secretary of the Graduate Programmes Unit at Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy. He can be reached directly via [email protected]

**************************************************************************The ISGPP-LCU Graduate Programmes in Public Administration and Public Policy is a collaborative endeavour with the Lead City University to offer exciting and flexible academic programmes that provide high calibre students, graduates and working professionals across the globe with a unique opportunity to study important issues in contemporary Public Administration and Public Policy relevant to modern-day realities.

The Graduate Programmes offer innovative experiential learning opportunities for members of both private and public sectors to sharpen their skills and acquire new insights about modern best practices in management and policy making, hence, preparing them for an illustrious career in public service and administration.

A unique aspect of the programmes is the post-classroom practicum training and internship which students have to undertake as part of the requirements for the award of academic degrees. This is where public servants and policy practitioners can gain useful knowledge and develop practical skills for supporting policy work in their various capacities and strengthening the efforts at delivering good governance for citizens.

For more information, visit isgpp.com.ng/programmes/graduate-programme