Culture, Corruption and Public Management Reform: Perspectives on Problem of Ethics in the Nigerian Public Service

Corruption has been adduced in recent past to be synonymous with the culture of developing countries especially African culture by some schools of thought. The primary aim of this research is to see how true this deduction and premise are? Culture, corruption and public management reform are different concepts, how do they affect one another in public service related issues? A broader view becomes a necessary tool in this type of analysis. Culture represents living entity, corruption represents an act and while public management reform represents a state of dissatisfaction that requires a change. Analysis based on a comparative approach on corruption shows that corruption is universal. From one culture to another the causes and effects differ in many ways. Public management reform from cultural interpretation differs in terms of result outcomes. The need to understand a particular cultural environment before public management reform ideas are introduced and applied becomes a key strategy to success. Culture is like force that could aid or limit public management reform ideas. Public management reform ideas are positivism premised to create public good. Corruption could become resilient if a thorough environmental check is not done, especially when public management reform ideas are aimed at removing corruption. However, public management reform ideas have the tendencies of removing traditional structures that encourage the growth of corruption. For the Nigerian public service the complexity emanating from the diversity of the Nigerian state structural arrangements is the major cause of administrative corruption in the public service. Building an ethical filled public service becomes a difficulty because a majority of the populace sees the state as a foreign element. This further creates a problem of loss of trust towards the holistic Nigerian state vision. The Nigerian state is a product of British imperialism that accommodates over 300 different ethnic groups, where some are dominant and others are dominated. The primary aim of capturing the state apparatus which the public service is also a part, for either selfish or ethnic interest becomes the order of the day. A privileged–marginalised dichotomy is therefore created in the Nigerian state that is automatically transferred to the public service. New public management reform ideas especially that of participatory state model becomes a relevant tool in building social capital. An increase in social capital leads to an increase in trust because people from these diverse backgrounds will network with an understanding of the opposite. This in turn will reduce corruption in both the Nigerian state and the public service.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format