A Historical and Comparative Analysis of Colonial and Post Colonial Bureaucracy in Nigeria

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the historical and comparative analysis of colonial and post-colonial civil service in Nigeria and to probe issues connected with Nigerianisation of the civil service. It attempts to justify that both colonial and post-colonial civil service recorded bureaucratic successes but quota and federal character policies partly affected post-colonial bureaucratic practice in Nigeria. The paper applies historical and comparative analysis of colonial and post-colonial civil service in Nigeria. The paper finds that colonial administration introduced representation of indigenous officials in administration and recognized the strength of the merit principle in the practice of representative bureaucracy in Nigeria but post-colonial administration mixed meritocracy with federal character and quota policies. The paper presents elaborative discussions on strategies to break up the power hegemony of national executive with constitutional provisions of federal character policy and effects of its application subsumed in the analysis that administrative decentralization has its flaws.