ETHICS AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN THE NIGERIAN PUBLIC SERVICE: ISSUES, CHALLENGES AND THE WAY FORWARD

Abstract

The Nigeria’s Public Service is bedeviled with plethora of ethical issues ranging from bribing, embezzlements of funds, meant for developmental projects, falsification of government’s documents for selfish motives, over-voicing of contracts’ figures etc. Conversely, this widespread of lack of ethics and accountability in the public service are part of the causative agents for the poverty, deprivations, and inequalities facing the generality of Nigerians, especially in the face of abundant natural and human resources. The blatant looting of palliative materials meant for the vulnerable during the Covid-19 pandemic era and lockdown periods, by public officials, points to the fact that, there exist ethical problems and gaps in our public service, which is saddled with the responsibility of implementing programs and projects of the government.   The article therefore, sought and explored the causes of the widespread unethical behaviour in the public service. The study employing mainly secondary data, adopted the content analysis method where findings and relevant information from textbook, newspapers, magazines, journals, government publications, specific empirical studies etc., as they relate to the issues of ethics and accountability. Arising from the analysis, the article identified as constraints to ethical behaviour in Nigeria’s public service generally are general poverty, corrupt practices, lack of accountability culture, unethical culture from the erstwhile colonialists, weak regulatory instruments, politicization of the service, nepotism, amongst others. Based on the identified problems, recommendations such as; creation of practical anti-crimes tools and instruments in the service, the use of the public service occupational associations to institutionalize professional values, creation of enabling environment and more realistic condition of service, strengthening public institutions responsible for ensuring accountability devoid of selective justice, are suggested as practical ways of promoting ethics and accountability in the public service.