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... 1 BACKGROUND INTRODUCTION
The Ecology of Public Administration refers to the totality of the environment as regards all the natural, historical, socio-cultural and religious factors and the significant national experiences, which have in one way or the other influenced the growth and development of public administration. ... Administration could be private or public oriented and the area of emphasis of this paper are on Public Administration. Public Administration is therefore, a broad combination of theory and practice which has the purpose of promoting a superior understanding about the relationship between government and its citizens through the encouragement of public policies which are more responsive to the social needs and managerial practices at the institutions, and with the aim of the institutions being the effectiveness, efficiency and fulfillment of the deeper human needs of the citizens. The instrument used by the government to satisfy the needs of people is Public Policy. ... 2 NATURE AND SCOPE
The nature of Public Administration can best be seen from the areas of benefits and modus operandi. Public Administration promotes the overall interest of the public. Accordingly, the public as a whole is the major emphasis of Public Administration practice. ... Browne Onuoha (1999)2 argues that Public Administration might be considered both as a field of action and as a field of study because Public Administration refers to the Mechanics and Structures through which government policies are implemented.
The scope of Public Administration identifies what the art and study of Public Administration is all about. The long history of the development of Public Administration, which includes modern development and technology, certainly has expanded the nature and scope of Public Administration both in Nigeria and universally. ...
The development of Nigerian Public Administration is in the areas of organisation theory/information science, including the state, local government, executive management, administrative law etc. All these seek to explain what the public interest is in a democracy and under a highly bureaucratic set up is confronted with. The present state of the study help to give details of the several phases of the development of public administration among other things, and shows that administration takes place in an organisation and when administration takes place in a very large and complex organisation, bureaucracy necessarily comes into practice.
The ecology of the nature of Public Administration cannot be considered without due consideration to the fact that Public Administration has a relationship with Politics and Administration Dichotomy, Organisation, which gives birth to Bureaucracy, Scientific Management, Administrative Management, Human Relations; Bureaucracy and Public Administration and Public Policy. ... 1 Politics and Administration dichotomy
These are viewed from the two perspectives. ... It will not be the creation of permanent officials but of statesmen whose responsibility to public opinion will be direct and inevitable". ...
According to Leonard White4 whose book is reputed as devoted entirely to public administration, the general thrust of the field of public administration maintains that:
1. Politics should not intrude on administration. ... Public Administration is capable of becoming a value-free science in its own right. ... The mission of administration is economy and efficiency. ... He remarked that, "public administration is policy making - public administration is one of the numbers of basic political processes by which people achieve and control government. ... 7 They attempted to develop "principles" of administration, which is workable universally. They gave the discipline of public administration, the acronym POSDCORB, which means planning, organising, staffing, directing, co-ordinating, reporting and budgeting. ...
The Organisation and Bureaucracy are infused together having influenced public policy and the public service in all public organisations. ...
Public Administration and Public Policy
Public Policy is defined as a proposed course of action of a person, group or government within a given environment providing obstacles and opportunities which the policy was proposed to utilize and overcome in an effort to reach a goal or realise an objective as a purpose.8 According to James Anderson, public policy is a "purposive course of action followed by an actor or set of actors in dealing with a problem or matter of concern." Examples of such public policies are: Industrial Policy of Nigeria (1988), Agricultural Policy of Nigeria (1988), Indigensation Policy (1972), Commercialisation and Privatisation Policy (1988), Health for All Policy etc. Thus, public policy is the interest of all the people.
The authority for making public policy in any political system is vested in organs and officials of the government. ... They perform one role or the other on behalf of government, and in such processes and capacities they make and implement public policy.
Implications of the concept of public policy
a. Public policy is directed towards a purpose, it is a goal-oriented action. ... Public policy consists of courses or patterns of action by government officials. ... Public policy is what governments actually do in regulating trade, controlling inflation, drugs, and promoting health and public housing, etc. ... Public policy may be positive or negative. ... Public policy is based on law therefore it is authoritative. ... 3 THE PUBLIC SERVICE
The Public Service represents the employees of government. ... Workers in the Ministry of Education, Central Bank of Nigeria, NNPC, NITEL, Lagos State Development and Property Corporation (LSDPC) etc.9 All these are all members of the public service, which have the civil service as its core. They are commonest practitioners and the greatest formulators and implementators of public policies. ... 1 The Udoji Commission
During the period between September 1972 and September 1974, a public service review commission carried out a comprehensive review of the entire public service of the federation. ... 10 It accompanied governments white paper entitled Government Views on the Report of the Public Service Review Commission. ... The Udoji Commission made a wide range of observations and recommendations on all the public services. However, a comparism of the government paper with the Udoji report reveals among other things, that the negative comments on the civil service were either ignored, suppressed or dismissed and that the recommendations that could favour the healthy growth and development of certain institutions within the public service were rejected. The commission recommended for results-oriented and unified structure of public service for the whole country. ... Another case is prevention of the public enterprises and the universities from enjoying autonomy to enhance their status as elite institutions. ... Udoji Commission observed in its report that the relationship between generalist administration and professionals was one of acrimony and antagonism in a conflict rather than partnership in an enterprise". ... 12 The outcome of it was aimed to streamline the public service along the lines of the presidential system of government with the purpose of making the public service responsive to the Structural Adjustment Programme. ...
The relevance and centrality of the public service to public administration cannot be over-emphasised. It is the public service that ensures the continuity of government, acts as custodian and protector of the public interest and public treasury against violation by the ruling class. ... 4 PRE-COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION
Before the advent of British Colonialism, there was not in existence a country called Nigeria. However, history traced that various parts of what is now known as Nigeria practised one form of administration or another. ... In a nutshell, administration had been in existence throughout the communities even before the arrival of the British. ... 5 COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION
Another dimension to Public Administration arose from British colonialism, which greatly influenced the growth and development of Nigeria public administration. Britain colonised Nigeria and established its Public Service Structure and Procedures in the administration of the colonial territory in order to serve specific colonial purposes.
The now known Nigeria evolved in 1816 following the annexation of Lagos as a Crown Colony and as a result of the gradual incorporation of the contiguous areas and peoples into the British Empire.
Approximate Word count = 6349
Approximate Pages = 25.4
(250 words per page double spaced)
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