Re-Inventing Nigerian Civil Service for Effective Service Delivery in the 21st Century

The paper examines re-inventing Nigerian civil service for effective service delivery in the 21st century. The use of secondary data was adopted as well as eloquent testimonies of the bad state of civil service as concrete evidence of inefficiency in the civil service. In analyzing the data, descriptive statistics and qualitative technique were employed. Findings reveal that the Nigerian civil service is one of the significant legacies left by the colonialists which serves as a functional tool required to put the nation on the path of recovery that could match the rising expectation of the people savouring the euphoria of independence which necessitated the reforms in the civil service. In spite of the reform, the civil service is faced with such challenges such as acute absolescence of method, frequent postings and reshuffling of top administrators, problem of adequate and appropriate office accommodation, lackadaisical attitude of lower cadres etc. The paper therefore suggests that for effective and efficient service delivery of the civil service in the 21st century, there is the need to redesign services and deliver them digitally, organize in-service training courses for the junior cadres; and restore confidence and morale among the working force in the public service