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.