Abstracts 

ABSTRACTS OF PUBLISHED PAPERS AND INVITED LECTURES

Nigerian Federation at the Crossroads: the Way Forward

This paper reviews the first fifty years of federal experience in Nigeria.  It distinguishes three phases: an apprenticeship to “true” federalism phase (1954-1965); a federal dominance phase under military rule (1966-1979 and 1984-1999); and a “muddling through” phase under civilian rule (1979-1983 and 1999 to date).  The first phase was characterized by political devolution and intergovernmental competition; and regional governments recorded tangible results.  During the second phase, successive military regimes imposed centralism and federal dominance that kept Nigeria one but arrested progress towards consolidating federal democracy.  Civilian administrations under the third phase have sought to run the federation in a muddling through fashion, and with mixed results: serious political and social tensions, modest economic performance and deepening poverty.  In a final section, the paper argues that the Nigerian federation is at the crossroads and it has two options: devolution or death.

(Published in Publius, The Journal of Federalism, 35, 3, 2005, 383-405).

Re-Orienting Public Management in Africa: Selected Issues and Some Country Experiences

The objective of this paper is to examine some aspects of the efforts aimed at re-orienting public management in Africa since the early 1990s. The paper begins with a review of the background to the re-orientation exercise: the decline of the public administration systems in a majority of countries that was accompanied, in some cases, with the collapse of the state. In the second chapter, some selected issues in re-orienting public management are examined. One of the selected issues, the politics and administration nexus, which is at the heart of the conduct of government business, is further examined in depth in the third chapter. The fourth chapter is devoted to specific country experiences of good and bad practices, including attention to key lessons from each case. The fifth and final chapter contain first a brief reflection on how countries can achieve better and sustainable public management reform results, and second, some thoughts on the desirability of introducing and implementing an “African administrative space” within the framework of the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD).

(A monograph - Re-Orienting Public Management in Africa: Selected Issues and Some Country Experiences. Economic Research Working Paper No 81, 2005. Tunis: African Development Bank.  Also available on the web @ www.afdb.org)

The Political Fundamentals of Development

The argument of this paper is that there are some political fundamentals that have significant impact on the development process in the modern state.  The argument is developed with particular reference to the relatively young states of sub-Saharan Africa..  Following the introduction devoted to definitions of development, governance, and five political fundamentals, used as synonyms of the elements of good governance (rule of law; respect for the basic freedoms of expression and association; electoral legitimacy; competent administration; and accountability and transparency), Part II of the paper examines, in some detail, the impact of each political fundamental on the development process.  Part III is devoted to an overview of the impact of political fundamentals on development performance.  The overview stresses that without real progress in respect of the political fundamentals, improvements recorded in the social and economic spheres would not be sustainable.  The concluding observations that constitute Part IV are focused on how to progress from bad to good governance and from weak to strong development performance.

(Second in the Distinguished Lecture Series of Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State, delivered on March 9, 2006).

On The Transferability of Governance Institutions: Two Illustrations - Sweden’s Ombudsman and Hong Kong’s

Anti-Corruption Commission

This paper reviews the experience of transferring two governance institutions on a worldwide scale – Sweden’s Ombudsman and Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).  After an overview of the spread of the two institutions, attention is drawn to the factors that have made transfer possible, including a distinction between formal institutional transfers and their effective functioning in the different countries.  The key messages of the paper are summarized in a concluding section.

(A chapter in G. Bertucci and A. Alberti (eds.), Methodologies for the transfer of innovations and best practices in governance and public administration.  New York: United Nations, 2005). 

Africa: Rehabilitating Civil Service Institutions -Main Issues and Implementation Progress.

By the early 1990s, most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) were seeking to rehabilitate their civil service institutions that had become relatively weaker than they were in the immediate post-independence years.  The rehabilitation efforts were aimed at enhancing the capacity of the institutions to effectively play their roles in the conduct of government business in the context of simultaneous transitions to functioning democratic polities and well-performing market economies, and in meeting the challenge of adjusting African societies, politics and economies to the imperatives of regional integration and globalization. The chapter is in three sections.  The first section reviews how the relatively healthy civil service institutions in many SSA countries at independence had become very weak around 1990.  The second section summarizes the main issues addressed in the reform efforts being implemented since the early 1990s.  The modest results of reform implementation up to late 2005 are reviewed in the third and final section with references to selected country experiences, including examples of both successes and failures.  Factors for success and failure are highlighted.  Some concluding observations are made on possible future directions at the levels of both practice and research.

(Forthcoming in Comparing Civil Service Systems, edited by J. R et al, London: Palgrave Books) 

Toward Educational Excellence: Lessons from Western Nigeria Experience – Leadership, Institutions and Participation 

The message of this paper is that progress toward educational excellence in Nigeria (and probably in any modern state) requires a combination of three key factors: quality leadership (both political and technocratic), well performing political and administrative institutions, and public participation through voluntary sector organizations such as community-based organizations and religious institutions.  It was the fortunate combination of a visionary political leadership, a world-class administrative leadership, a mass mobilizing political party, a strong public service, and an engaged citizenry that constituted the success factors of the universal primary education (UPE) in Western Nigeria.  The same factors made possible the overall good development performance in the region of which the UPE was an integral part.  The subsequent negative impact of bad governance (that is, civilian and military misrule) on this remarkable achievement is the final lesson that is highlighted in the paper.  In conclusion, I advocate a return to the devolution arrangements that made the Western Nigeria success story possible.  

(Forthcoming in Free Education in Western Nigeria: Impact and Future Challenges edited by Ropo Sekoni and Segun Gbadegesin).