POL 341: Public Administration in Nigeria

130 Pages·2015·0.59 MB·English

COURSE

GUIDE

POL 341
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN NIGERIA

Course Team Dr. M. O. Quadri (Course Developer/Writer) -
UNILAG
Dr. B. Onuoha (Course Editor)-UNILAG
Mr. A.A. Bello (Course Coordinator) - NOUN
Prof. D. A. Olufemi Otubanjo (Programme
Leader) - NOUN

NATIONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA
POL 341 COURSE GUIDE

National Open University of Nigeria
Headquarters
14/16 Ahmadu Bello Way
Victoria Island, Lagos

Abuja Office
5 Dar es Salaam Street
Off Aminu Kano Crescent
Wuse 11, Abuja

e-mail: [email protected]
URL: www.nou.edu.ng

Published by
National Open University of Nigeria

Printed 2015

ISBN: 978-058-022-7

All Rights Reserved

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POL 341 COURSE GUIDE

CONTENTS PAGE

Introduction…………………………………………………….… iv
What you will Learn in this Course……………………………. iv
The Course Aims ………………………………………………... iv
The Course Objectives ………………………………………….. v
Working through this Course …………………………………… v
Course Materials ………………………………………………… vi
Study Units ……………………………………………………… vi
Textbooks and References…………………………………….… vii
Assignment File…………………………………………………. vii
Assessment Files……………………………………………….… vii
Tutor-Marked Assignments (TMAs)……………………………. vii
Final Examinations and Grading………………………………… viii
Course Marking Scheme………………………………………… viii
Presentation Schedule…………………………………………… viii
Course Overview………………………………………………… viii
How to Get the Most of this Course…………………………….. x
Facilitators/Tutors and Tutorials ……………………………….. xii
Summary……………………………………………………….… xii

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POL 341 COURSE GUIDE
INTRODUCTION

Welcome to POL 341: Public Administration in Nigeria. This course is a
three-credit unit compulsory for students studying political science and
related programmes in the School of Arts and Social Sciences. The
course has been arranged for you in twenty-two distinct but related units
of study activities. This Course Guide gives you an overview of the
course. It also provides you with information on the organisation and
requirements of the course.

In this Course Guide, you will find out what you need to know about the
aims and objectives of the course, components of the course material,
arrangement of the study units, assignments, and examinations.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN IN THE COURSE

The course content will tell you the public administration system in
Nigeria. The course will also discuss some of the broad framework we
termed background to the study of public administration. The unit will
introduce you to the basic ideas of public administration. These include
gaining insight into the meaning of ‘administration’ and ‘public
administration’ as well as examination of various definitions of public
administration as provided by scholars in the field. You will also learn
the characteristics of public administration and its basic components. In
the next four units under this module we shall be discussing other issues
that fall within the purview of background to the study of public
administration

THE COURSE AIM

The course is aimed at acquainting you with the knowledge of public
administration in Nigeria. In the process of doing this, you will come
across some basic concepts and ideas of public administration. The
course will provide you with the require knowledge on the principles
and practices of administration in Nigeria. This will invariably involve
discussion on the Nigerian Local Government Administration, the
Nigerian civil service, its evolution and growth, reforms in the civil
service privatisation and commercialisation. The course will expose you
to the administration of urban system.

To ensure that this aim is achieved, some important background
information will be provided and discussed. These include:

• Basic concepts of public administration
• Nature and scope of public administration
• Approaches to the study of public administration
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POL 341 COURSE GUIDE

• Principles of public administration
• The Nigerian local government administration
• Evolution and growth of public administration in Nigeria
• Reforms of civil service in Nigeria
• Planning and budgeting in the Nigerian civil service
• Privatisation and commercialisation in Nigeria
• Urbanisation and its challenges in Nigeria.

THE COURSE OBJECTIVES

To achieve the aims set out above, POL 341 has overall objectives. In
addition, each unit also has specific objectives. The unit objectives are at
the beginning of each unit. It is advisable that you read them before you
start working through the unit. Reference may be made to them in the
course of study of the unit as self-assessment strategy.

Presented below are the wider objectives for the course as a whole. By
meeting the objectives, you should be regarded as having met the aims
of the course. On successful completion of the course, you should be
able to:

At the end of the course you should be able to:

• discuss the basic concepts and ideas of public administration.
• discuss the scope and approaches to the study of public
administration.
• discuss the local government administration system in Nigeria.
• explore and discuss the evolution and development of civil
service in Nigeria.
• examine the issues of planning and budgeting in the Nigerian
civil service.
• appraise privatisation and commercialisation policies in Nigeria.
• examine issues of urbanisation and discusses the challenges of
urbanisation in Nigeria.

WORKING THROUGH THIS COURSE

For a successful completion of this course, the student is required to read
the study units and other relevant materials especially recommended
materials. It is also necessary to undertake practical exercises for which
the student needs a pen, a note-book, and other materials that will be
listed in this guide. The exercises are to aid the student in understanding
the concepts being presented. At the end of each unit, the student will be
required to submit written assignments for assessment purposes. At the
end of the course, a final examination shall be written.
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POL 341 COURSE GUIDE
COURSE MATERIALS

The major materials needed for this course are:

1. Course Guide
2. Study Units
3. Textbooks
4. Assignments file
5. Tutorials
6. Relevant textbooks including the ones listed under each unit
7. Student may also need to listen to political programmes and news
reports on electronic media
8. In addition, the student also needs to read newspapers,
newsmagazines, academic journals and interact with computers
for Internet facilities.

THE STUDY UNITS

There are 22 study units in this course as listed below:

Module 1

Unit1 Introduction to the Study of Public Administration
Unit 2 Nature and Scope of Public Administration
Unit 3 Approaches to the Study of Public Administration
Unit 4 Principles of Public Administration
Unit 5 Private and Public Administration

Module 2

Unit 1 Evolution of Public Administration in Nigeria
Unit 2 Ecology of the Nigerian Public Administration
Unit 3 The Nigerian Civil Service
Unit 4 Public Service Reforms in Nigeria
Unit 5 Planning and Budgeting in the Nigerian Civil Service

Module 3

Unit 1 The Study of Local Government
Unit2 Evolution of the Nigerian Local Government
Unit3 Local Government Reforms in Eastern, Western and
Northern Nigeria -1950s
Unit 4 The 1976 Local Government Reforms in Nigeria
Unit 5 Local Government in Nigeria Since 1984

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POL 341 COURSE GUIDE

Module 4

Unit 1 Public Corporations in Nigeria
Unit 2 Privatisation and Commercialisation
Unit 3 Problems of Privatisation and Commercialisation in
Nigeria
Unit 4 Public-Private Partnership

Module 5

Unit 1 Urbanisation – Definitions and the Process
Unit 2 Challenges of Urbanisation in Nigeria
Unit 3 Urban Governance and Service Delivery in Nigeria

TEXTBOOKS AND REFERENCES

Certain books have been recommended in the course. You may wish to
purchase them for further reading.

ASSIGNMENT FILE

Each unit of the course has a self-assessment exercise. You will be
expected to attempt them as this will enable you understand the content
of the unit.

ASSESSMENT FILE

An assessment file and a marking scheme will be made available to you.
In the assessment file, you will find details of the works that must be
submitted to the tutor for marking. There are two aspects of the
assessment of this course; the tutor- marked assignment and the written
examination. The marks obtained in these two areas will make up the
final marks. The assignment must be submitted to the Tutor for formal
assessment in accordance with the deadline stated in the presentation
schedule and the Assignment file. The work submitted to the Facilitator
for assessment will count for 30% of the student’s total score.

TUTOR- MARKED ASSIGNMENTS (TMAs)

You will have to submit a specified number of the TMAs. Every unit in
this course has a tutor- marked assignment. You will be assessed on four
of them but the best three performances from the TMAs will be used for
your 30% grading. When you have completed each assignment, such
should be sent together with a tutor- marked assignment form, to your
tutor. You are advised to make sure that each assignment reaches your
tutor on or before the deadline for submissions. If for any reason, you
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POL 341 COURSE GUIDE
cannot complete the work on time, contact should be made with the
facilitator for a discussion on the possibility of an extension. Extensions
will not be granted after the due date unless under exceptional
circumstances.

FINAL EXAMINATION AND GRADING

The final examination will be a test of three hours. All areas of the
course will be examined. You should find time to read the unit all over
before the examination. The final examination will attract 70% of the
total course grade. The examination will consist of questions, which
reflect the kinds of self assessment exercises and tutor- marked
assignment previously encountered. And all aspects of the course will be
assessed. You should use the time between completing the last unit, and
taking the examination to revise the entire course.

COURSE MARKING SCHEME

The following table lays out how the actual course mark allocation is
broken down.

Table 1: Course Marking Scheme

Assessment Marks
Assignments (best three assignments out
of 30%
four marked)
Final examination 70%
Total 100%

PRESENTATION SCHEDULE

The dates for submission of all assignment will be communicated to
you. You will also be told the date of completing the study units and
dates for examinations.

COURSE OVERVIEW

The table brings together the units, the number of weeks you will take to
complete them and the assignment that follows them.

TABLE 2: COURSE ORGANISERS

Unit Title of Work Weeks
Activity
Course Week 1 Assignment
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POL 341 COURSE GUIDE

Guide 1
Module Background to the Study of
1 Public Administration
Unit 1 Introduction to the study of Week 1 Assignment
public administration 2
Unit 2 Nature and scope of public Week 1 Assignment
administration 3
Unit 3 Approaches to the study of Week 2 Assignment
public administration 4
Unit 4 Principles of public Week 2
administration
Unit 5 Private and public Week 2
administration
Module Ecology of the Nigerian
2 Public Administration/the
Nigerian Civil Service
Unit 1 Evolution of public Week 3 Assignment
administration in Nigeria 1
Unit 2 Ecology of the Nigerian public Week 3
administration
Unit 3 The Nigerian civil service Week 4 Assignment
2
Unit 4 Public service reforms in Week 5 Assignment
Nigeria 3
Unit 5 Planning and budgeting in the Week 5 Assignment
Nigerian civil service 4
Module Local Government
3 Administration in Nigeria
Unit 1 The study of local government Week 5 Assignment
1
Unit 2 Evolution of the Nigerian local Week 6 Assignment
government 2
Unit 3 Local government reforms in Week 6 Assignment
Eastern, Western and Northern 3
Nigeria - 1950s

Unit 4 The 1976 local government Week7
reforms in Nigeria
Unit 5 Local government in Nigeria Week 7 Assignment
since 1984 4

Unit 1 Public corporations in Nigeria Week 8 Assignment
1
Unit 2 Privatisation and Week 8 Assignment
commercialisation 2
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POL 341 COURSE GUIDE
Unit 3 Problems of privatisation and Week 8
commercialisation in Nigeria
Unit 4 Public-private partnership
Module Urban Administration in
5 Nigeria
Unit 1 Urbanisation – Definitions and Week 9 Assignment
the Process 1

Unit 2 Challenges of urbanisation in Week 9 Assignment
Nigeria 2
Unit 3 Urban governance and service Week 10 Assignment
delivery in Nigeria 3
Revision Week 11
Examination Week 12
Total Week 13

HOW TO GET THE MOST FROM THIS COURSE

In distance learning, the study units replace the university lecture. This
is one of the great advantages of distance learning; you can read and
work through specially designed study materials at your own pace, and
at a time and place, that suits you best. Think of it as reading the lecture
instead of listening to the lecturer. In the same way a lecturer might give
you some readings to do, the study units tells distance learner where to
read, and which are your text materials or text books. Distance learners
are provided exercises to do at appropriate points, just as a lecturer
might give the students in-class exercise. Each of the study units follows
a common format. The first item is an introduction to the subject matter
of the unit, and how a particular unit is integrated with the other units
and the course as a whole. Next to this is a set of learning objectives.
These objectives let you know what you should be able to do by the time
the units have been completed. These learning objectives are meant to
guide you in your studies. The moment a unit is finished, you must go
back and check whether you have achieved the objectives. If this is
made a habit then, you will significantly improve your chances of
passing the course. The main body of the unit guides the student through
the required reading from other sources. This will usually be either from
your set books or from a reading section. The following is a practical
strategy for working through the course. If you run into any trouble, you
should telephone the tutor for assistance. Remember that the tutor’s job
is to provide such help. You should not hesitate to call and ask for such
assistance when needed.

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