Security of Tenure in Nigerian Public Administration
| Published date | 01 December 1976 |
| Date | 01 December 1976 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002085237604200406 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Security
of
Tenure
in
Nigerian
Public
Administration:
A
Brief
History
and
Recent
Developments
UDC
35.08(669)
by
Dr.
M.J.
BALOGUN,
Senior
Lecturer
in
Management
Studies,
Institute
of
Administration,
University
of
Ife,
Ile-Ife
Introduction
The
concept
of
security
of
tenure
in
the
public
administration
of
new
states
cannot
be
clearly
understood
unless
it
is
discussed
along
with
another
important
subject,
viz.
the
relationship
between
politics
and
administra-
tion.
In
this
paper,
an
attempt
is
made
to
trace
the
history
of
that
relationship
over
three
major
periods
-
the
periods
of
institution-
building,
institution-breakdown
and
institution-
regeneration.
The
first
(institution-building)
period
is
that
during
which
administration
could
be
said
to
be
a
’servant’
of
policy
and
when
the
idea
of
security
of
tenure
for
the
career
public
service
began
to
take
root.
The
phase
of
institution-breakdown
witnessed
a
reversal
of
roles
because
political
instability
and
decay
conferred
greater
powers
on
career
public
servants
at
the
expense
of
politicians.
Also
during
this
period,
the
security
of
tenure
en-
joyed
by
career
officials
remained
largely
un-
affected.
The
early
part
of
the
period
of
institution-regeneration
saw
an
even
more
substantial
expansion
in
the
power-base
of
ad-
ministration
-
an
expansion
which,
as
will
be
discovered
later,
subsequently
proved
fatal
to
the
security
of
career
administrators.
I.
THE
HISTORICAL
PERSPECTIVE
In
Third
World
countries,
it
is
normal
for
civilian
and
military
regimes
to
‘ come
and
go ’
*
while
career
civil
servants
remain.
However,
this
normal’
pattern
was
upset
in
Nigeria
as
from
July
29,
1975,
when
what
is
locally
called
the ’
retirement
fever’
gripped
the
coun-
try.
Since
the
Muhammed
regime
took
over
from
the
Gowon
regime,
top-ranking
officials
in
civil
services,
statutory
corporations,
state-
owned
companies,
as
well
as
university
pro-
fessors,
high
court
judges,
police
and
customs
officers,
etc.,
have
lost
their
jobs.
Some
were
retired &dquo;
with
benefits &dquo;,
others
had
their
ap-
pointments
terminated,
while
officials
accused
of
serious
offences
were
summarily
dismissed.
The
question
then
is ’
What
happened
to
the
concept
of
security
of
tenure ’ ?
Any
realistic
appraisal
bf
the
current
situa-
tion
will
have
to
begin
with
a
historical
perspective.
Historians
will
undoubtedly
dis-
agree
over
the
relevance
of
particular
episodes
and
the
ways
the
events
of
the
past
should
be
interpreted.
In
this
paper,
we
are
not
looking
at
the
field
of
public
administration
as
historians.
Rather,
we
are
abstracting
from
history
what
is
relevant
to
public
administra-
tion.
To
be
specific,
we
wish
to
look
at
the
history
of
the
relationship
between
policy
formulation
and
policy
implementation
func-
tions.
The
former
is
supposed
to
be
the
responsibility
of
political
leaders
who
represent
the
People,
while
the
latter
belong
to
admin-
istrators
or ’
servants’
of
the
People.
With
this
frame
of
reference,
it
is
possible
to
apply
a
conceptual
scheme
recently
devel-
oped by
the
author
(1).
Thus
tracing
the
history
of
African
public
administration
generally,
the
scheme
identifies
three
major
phases
of
development
and
regression,
viz.:
the
phases
of
institution-building,
institution-
breakdown,
and
institution-regeneration.
As
we
shall
later
discover,
each
of
these
phases
has
consequences
for
the
role
and
status
of
career
public
servants.
The
institution-building
phase
is
that
at
which
new
political
and
admin-
istrative
values
are
introduced
by
colonial
offi-
cials
acting
in
conjunction
with
indigenous
political
and
administrative
elites.
The
phase
of
institution-breakdown
begins
with
a
wither-
ing
away
of
the
inherited
political
and
admin-
(1)
M.J.
Balogun,
’Management
Improvement
in
a
Period
of
Transition:
a
Paradigm
and
a
Sug-
gestion’,
in
C.
Baker
and
M.J.
Balogun
(Eds.),
Ife
Essays
in
Administration,
University
of
Ife
Press,
Ile-Ife,
1975.
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