DEMOCRACY AND THE COST OF GOVERNANCE: THE NEED FOR NEW PUBLIC MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS PARADIGM IN NIGERIA (Published)
The paper identified globalization as the free-market induced paradigm that brought about the desire to cut the cost of running governments all over the world, and subsequently influenced the emergence of the New Public Management Administrative Reform Paradigm in Britain, USA, Austria, New Zealand and Nigeria in 2003. The paper further traced the development of Public Administration down to New Public Administration; identify and compared the Traditional Administration with the New Public Management. In addition, tables containing the statutory allocations to the National Assembly of Nigeria from 2005 to 2013; the Law Makers Salaries and Allowances; the List of Federal Ministers and their salaries and allowances were conspicuously displayed. Finally, the paper recommended that there is the need for a drastic reduction in the cost of running all the tiers of governments in Nigeria; the salaries and allowances of Legislators, Ministers, Commissioners, Special Advisers and Assistants; a reduction in the number of Federal Ministers to twenty together with the need to abolish the position of the Minister of State because the Federal Ministers can ably be assisted by their respective Permanent Secretaries.
Keywords: Administrative Reforms, Cost Of Governance, Democracy, New Public Management, Nigeria