Representative Bureaucracy, Meritocracy, and Nation Building in Nigeria

Bola Dauda · Toyin Falola

Dec 2015 · Cambria Press

About this ebook

 This book is a comprehensive theoretical and empirical investigation of the practical application of representative bureaucracy in Nigeria. Part I consists of four chapters, beginning with a theoretical and an historical overview of representative bureaucracy and policy making in Nigeria. This includes a discussion of the myths, contradictions, and the resultant dilemmas of administration. It highlights the complexities and intricacies of public policy-making, and examines the concept of representative bureaucracy including its meaning, forms, criticisms, prospects, limitations, and history. It also examines the need for administrative reforms, what reforms have taken place, and the country's search for appropriate bureaucracy for nation building. Part II details the objective and empirical facts regarding the representativeness of bureaucracy in Nigeria and its implications. Unlike past approaches, this book provides solid evidence of what difference representative bureaucracy actually makes on the ground. Using a novel and rigorous methodological approach, the actual impact of the civil service on policy-making is assessed and insights are provided into how a more representative bureaucracy affects policy. The approach is enhanced by the authors' advantage as Nigerian scholars who had both worked in the Nigerian political system as civil servant and university professors. This landmark study will be of value to scholars and students of Nigerian and African political, economic, and social development .

About the author

 About Bola Dauda

Bola Dauda holds a master's and doctorate in Public Policy from the University of Liverpool. He is an honorary fellow of the University of Leicester. As a scholar he contributed chapters to books and published in academic journals in Europe, United States, Africa and Asia. His writings had been translated into Spanish, Chinese and French, and he is author of several books.

About Toyin Falola

Toyin Falola is the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair Professor in the Humanities and a Distinguished Teaching Professor at The University of Texas at Austin. He is a Fellow of the Historical Society of Nigeria and A Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters. He has received various awards and honors, including the Jean Holloway Award for Teaching Excellence, the Texas Exes Teaching Award, and seven honorary doctorates. Dr. Falola has published numerous books, most recently, Slavery, Migrations, and Transformations: Connecting Old and New Diasporas to the Homeland. He is the coeditor of Yoruba Studies Review and the general editor of the Cambria African Studies Series.