PUBLIC OFFICERS AND GOOD GOVERNANCE IN NIGERIA

The study critically examined the role of public officers in promoting good governance in Nigeria. The main objective of the study is to analyze the critical role public officers both career officials and political officials could play in the process of institutionalizing good governance for effective and efficient quality service delivery in Nigeria. The study relied heavily on secondary data from an in-depth desk reviews of books, Journeys, magazines, government documents, internet publications, newspapers etc. Since the data collected for the study is qualitative in nature, content analysis was adopted as the method for data analysis. Also the structural functionalism theory by A.R. Radcliff-Brown (1881-1995), a social anthropologist and American sociologist, Talcot persons (1902-1979) were adopted as the theoretical framework of Analysis for the study. The result of the findings from the content analysis of the secondary data reveals the fact that for good governance to be achieved in Nigeria, the public sector entities (ie ministries, departments, parastatals and agencies), as well as the public officers should anchor on two main cardinal principles for rendering effective and qualities services delivery to the citizens namely;-first strong commitment, ethical values and the rule of law, a second strong demonstration of openness and comprehensive stakeholder engagement. Based on the findings it is recommended that the public sector entities and public officers in Nigeria should engage in serious programmes for capacity building and development, especially the capacity of his leadership. Also, there should be the serious implementation of good practice in transparency and reporting to deliver effective accountability.