Service Delivery by Bureaucrats in Accident and Emergency Units of Selected Hopitals in Ekiti State (Published)
Service to the public should be satisfactorily done to fulfil public needs. It should be delivered in an effective predictable and customer-friendly manner. Bureaucratic procedures are particularly in separation and division of labour, adhering to formal rules and regulations. It has been observed that compliance with formal rules often put off innovative ideas and introduces avenue for the failure of healthcare employees. The capability of hospitals in providing adequate healthcare depends on how effective it can handle emergency health issues. Bureaucratic tendencies in the healthcare system have been a cog in the wheel of speedy care of patients. The cost and volume of bureaucratic directives has reduced the confidence of patients in public hospitals. The study, therefore, investigates patient’s delight and satisfaction with the service provided in the Accident and Emergency unit in some selected hospitals in Ekiti State. The paper employs both primary and secondary sources. The study got its Primary data through structured in-depth interview with the medical staff, administrative staff and patients of the selected hospitals on bureaucratic procedures adopted in the management of patients in their Accident and Emergency (A & E) unit of the hospitals. The secondary data was from government publications, journals and articles. Data from the interview will be qualitatively analyzed using content and discursive analysis to understand the trend of bureaucratic procedures and quality of healthcare services in Ekiti State. The paper therefore recommends that Emotional intelligence training should be given to all healthcare employees. This will entail awareness and understanding of emotions and applying them to behaviour and decision making in the hospitals, Government partnership and collaboration with foreign organizations should be encouraged in order to improve on the quality of service given in the A&E unit of Nigeria Hospitals.
Keywords: Bureaucracy, Hospitals, Service delivery, accident, emergency unit
The Collapse of Probity and Good Governance in Nigeria: The Bureaucracy Discharged But Not Acquitted (Published)
It is fifty-four years since the British colonial overlords departed Nigerian geo-political space living the stage for indigenous rulers. Fifty four years of independence provides opportunity for discourse, on good governance as Nigeria features prominently in the crises in Africa. Literature is awash with prognoses on the probable causes of this parlous state. There is a growing consensus that lack of probity and accountability are responsible for the appalling governance situation in Africa. Scholars in Nigeria taking a cue from polemics on politics and administration dichotomy and its dialectics in the western hemisphere have been arguing about the helplessness of public administration in Nigeria’s crisis of governance. Tracing the history of Nigeria’s political leadership and its bureaucracy, the paper provides a descriptive analysis of the crisis in Nigeria within the context of the nature of political leadership (colonial, post-colonial, military and civilian) and argues that neither Nigerian political leadership nor the bureaucracy are blameless using the theoretical stand-points of structural/functionalism and elitism especially in view of the influential role the bureaucracy had opportunity to play during the inexperienced three decades of military rule out of Nigeria’s five decades of independence. Recommendations include: a coherent and comprehensive bureaucratic reform that will wean the Nigerian public service from western-inspired top-down development paradigm to bottom-up approach; that there should be social re-orientation designed to eschew primordial values that promote nepotism and mediocrity; that merit should not be sacrificed on the altar of “sense of self-belonging” in Nigerian federation; and that Max Weber bureaucratic model should be adapted to grass-roots participatory governance.
Keywords: Bureaucracy, Governance, Political Leadership, Probity
THE COLLAPSE OF PROBITY AND GOOD GOVERNANCE IN NIGERIA- THE BUREAUCRACY DISCHARGED BUT NOT ACQUITTED (Published)
: It is fifty-four years since the British colonial overlords departed Nigerian geo-political space living the stage for indigenous rulers. Fifty four years of independence provides opportunity for discourse, on good governance as Nigeria features prominently in the crises in Africa. Literature is awash with prognoses on the probable causes of this parlous state. There is a growing consensus that lack of probity and accountability are responsible for the appalling governance situation in Africa. Scholars in Nigeria taking a cue from polemics on politics and administration dichotomy and its dialectics in the western hemisphere have been arguing about the helplessness of public administration in Nigeria’s crisis of governance. Tracing the history of Nigeria’s political leadership and its bureaucracy, the paper provides a descriptive analysis of the crisis in Nigeria within the context of the nature of political leadership (colonial, post-colonial, military and civilian) and argues that neither Nigerian political leadership nor the bureaucracy are blameless using the theoretical stand-points of structural/functionalism and elitism especially in view of the influential role the bureaucracy had opportunity to play during the inexperienced three decades of military rule out of Nigeria’s five decades of independence. Recommendations include: a coherent and comprehensive bureaucratic reform that will wean the Nigerian public service from western-inspired top-down development paradigm to bottom-up approach; that there should be social re-orientation designed to eschew primordial values that promote nepotism and mediocrity; that merit should not be sacrificed on the altar of “sense of self-belonging” in Nigerian federation; and that Max Weber bureaucratic model should be adapted to grass-roots participatory governance
Keywords: Bureaucracy, Governance, Political Leadership, Probity