New Public Management and Public Service Effectiveness in Nigeria: A Pragmatic Discourse

The main objective of this paper is to discuss the role of the New Public Management (NPM) as a reform initiative that can facilitate the effectiveness of public sector organizations in Nigeria. This is in view of the Central position of Public bureaucracy in national governance and the realization that the traditional paradigm of public administration has turned out to be inadequate in transforming post-colonial states into development oriented states. The reason being that the initial objectives and instruments driving such bureaucracies have become grossly inadequate in contemporary times. With a heavy reliance on secondary sources of data collection backed by the analytical approach, the paper observed that a reformed and well focused public service anchored on the tenets of NPM offer a ready tool for effective public service delivery in Nigeria. The paper recommends that the structural barriers and other encumbrances to the implementation of public sector reforms should be tackled on a sustainable basis. An appropriate institutional framework for linking research to the policy process through a cultivation of the gains of research and development in the public service is also emphasized.