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Paper short abstract:
In search of 'pockets of effectiveness', the paper beams
the search light on public service delivery in Nigeria, which is often
regarded as being in a poor state. It finds that indeed there are a few
pockets of effectiveness in public service delivery in Nigeria.
Paper long abstract:
The paper interrogates the existence of 'pockets of
effectiveness' among selected public services in Nigeria. While there is
a general negative perception of the effectiveness of public service
delivery across most African and developing countries, the paper seeks
to interrogate the case of Nigeria, and unravel whether there are areas
of public service delivery operating effectively. This is important as
majority of Nigerian citizens continue to lack quality and effective
public services from the government. The effectiveness of government in
delivery these public services are measured through citizens'
experiences of such services like reliable electricity supply, crime
reduction, water and sanitation services, among others. On this basis,
the paper interrogates the existence or otherwise of pockets of
effectiveness in public service delivery in Nigeria. It relies on
primary data sourced from Afrobarometer database R2016/2018 and analyses
the data using descriptive statistical techniques (frequencies and
percentages) of the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS); and
content analysis. The paper finds that among the ten public service
delivery tested, only four showed pockets of effectiveness, while the
remaining six held true of the poor and ineffective state of public
services description in Nigeria. It concludes that despite the largely
ineffective state of public service delivery in Nigeria, there is still
a few pockets of effectiveness in this area.