Nigeria's Public Service Reform Process: Human Resource Issues
Nigeria’s Public Service Reform Process: Human Resource Issues
By M J Balogun
2003
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Contents Table
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Abstract .................................................................................................. 3 Human Resources and National Development ...................................... 4 Problems in Human Resource Development and Utilization: a Review of Policies and Practices...................................................................... 10 Human Resource Development and Utilization: Short- and MediumTerm Measures..................................................................................... 14 Long-Term Measures ........................................................................... 16
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1.
Abstract
That Nigeria is going through a phase of rapid transition is beyond doubt. Variability in any case, is a constant feature of human societies. There was a time not too far in the past when the Nigerian economy was based on agriculture. Then for a few fleeting years, petroleum resources transformed the outward appearance of the economy. In recent years, oil wealth has proved to be so fickle and elusive a partner in development that frantic efforts have been, and are being, made to search for alternative sources of wealth. Looking at the vicissitudes in the life of a nation, as we have just done in the case of Nigeria, it is tempting then to suggest that the single determinant of a nation’s growth is the quantum of resources it possesses. To put it in another language, a nation waxes or wanes depending on its natural resource endowment. If this hypothesis is not totally false, it is also not exactly true. The experience of the last forty or so years has demonstrated that one factor that has proved decisive in Africa’s development effort is the caliber of the available human resource. It is this factor, rather than any other, that has pushed the continent farther on the path of dependence, recession and economic
By M J Balogun
2003
1
Contents Table
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Abstract .................................................................................................. 3 Human Resources and National Development ...................................... 4 Problems in Human Resource Development and Utilization: a Review of Policies and Practices...................................................................... 10 Human Resource Development and Utilization: Short- and MediumTerm Measures..................................................................................... 14 Long-Term Measures ........................................................................... 16
2
1.
Abstract
That Nigeria is going through a phase of rapid transition is beyond doubt. Variability in any case, is a constant feature of human societies. There was a time not too far in the past when the Nigerian economy was based on agriculture. Then for a few fleeting years, petroleum resources transformed the outward appearance of the economy. In recent years, oil wealth has proved to be so fickle and elusive a partner in development that frantic efforts have been, and are being, made to search for alternative sources of wealth. Looking at the vicissitudes in the life of a nation, as we have just done in the case of Nigeria, it is tempting then to suggest that the single determinant of a nation’s growth is the quantum of resources it possesses. To put it in another language, a nation waxes or wanes depending on its natural resource endowment. If this hypothesis is not totally false, it is also not exactly true. The experience of the last forty or so years has demonstrated that one factor that has proved decisive in Africa’s development effort is the caliber of the available human resource. It is this factor, rather than any other, that has pushed the continent farther on the path of dependence, recession and economic