Development Administration (PADM 810)

MPA Public Administration

Proposed Questions

Weekday

1. Examine the evolution of the Nigerian public service.

2. Recognize and discuss the distinctions between development and growth.

3. Discuss the viewpoint of Walter Rodney on economic development.

4. Establish a link between the 1930s economic depression and the evolution of
development administration.

5. What factors contributed to the phenomenal growth of the Nigerian bureaucracy?

6. Examine the scope of development management.

Weekend

1. Investigate the idea of public enterprise.

2. A few conflicts in Nigeria have met the planning objectives; identify and discuss these
conflicts.

3. Investigate the prospects for planning in Nigeria.

4. Mention and discuss the mixed economic system's strengths as they relate to
development planning.

5. Describe three (3) types of planning in detail.

6. What challenges, in your opinion, must be addressed to ensure the growth and
development of the Nigerian public service?

Development Administration (PADM 810)

MPA Public Administration

Proposed Marking Scheme

Weekday

(1) The evolution of the modern civil service in Nigeria can be traced generally to the close
of the Second World War. Specific landmark events in the evolution started with the
Lyttleton Constitution of 1954, which was a response to the independence movement and
the forces of regionalism and ethnicity. By this time, the need for the establishment of
regional governments and, consequently, regional civil services had been recognized and
accepted. This period also marked the beginning of the process of dismantling the colonial
civil service in Nigeria, which hitherto, as in all other British colonies then, was composed
of two broad classes: the senior service, covering all posts reserved for Europeans, and
the junior service, embracing all posts to which Nigerians were appointed (Abdulsalami,
1990).

Total: 12.5 marks

(2) a. Development is a process that creates growth, progress, positive change or the
addition of physical, economic, environmental, social and demographic components.  The
identification of these traps enables relating to political, economic, and social conditions in
a country in an attempt to advance development.

b. Growth refers to an increase in size evident through physical change.  Growth is also
used to refer to consistent growth and an increase in value. When your child increases in
height and weight, then they are experiencing a growth process.  On the other hand,
development refers to a process of gradual transformation.

Total: 12.5 marks

(3) Rodney (1972) defines economic development as a process where a society develops
economically as its members jointly increase their capacity for dealing with the
environment. He however argues that development should not be seen purely as an
economic affair but rather as an overall social process that is dependent upon the
outcome of man's efforts to deal with his natural environment.

Total: 12.5 marks

(4) There was overproduction; stocks of unsold goods piled up; factories were shut down;
share markets collapsed; and unemployment soared up. All these meant a complete
mismatch between production and market demand. It had been known that the free
market system did not ensure the smooth development of an economy based on private
enterprise. But the Great Depression made it crystal clear for everyone to see.
Incidentally, one should also note that the Soviet economy, being a planned economy,
remained unaffected by the Great Depression.

Total: 12.5 marks

(5) The following accounted for phenomenal expansion of the bureaucracy-creation of

more states and local governments: oil windfall and the commitment of successive
governments to socio-economic development through the mechanism of public enterprise.

Total: 12.5 marks

(6) This new field has led to the expansion of existing bureaucracies and the
establishment of new ones in the form of public utilities, corporations, and commissions
that span such sectors as telecommunications, electricity, petroleum, fertilizer, machine
tools, gas, solid minerals, steel, and aluminum, media, the hospitality industry, banks,
insurance companies, transportation, including aviation, paper mills, etcetera.

Total: 12.5 marks

Weekend

(1) Public enterprise  is  an  organisation  set  up  as  a  corporate body  and  as part   of
governmental   apparatus   for   entrepreneurial or entrepreneurial-like objective. It is an
enterprise created by law, an act of parliament, or a decree. The law defines its structure,
functions, and powers. In other words, we can define public enterprise as a state-owned
enterprise created by law for the purpose of national development.

Total: 12.5 marks

(2) Conflicts between federal and state governments, particularly in planning objectives,
are supposed to be minimal once the guidelines are jointly prepared and passed through
all the planning stages, but in practice, there seems to be conflicts in plan objectives due
to:

a) The existence of separate state plan documents apart from the national document,
which is conducive to the distortion of objectives and indeed the distortion of the national
plan itself.

b) The deliberate deviation from the plan process and implementation of non-plan projects

c) The existence of communication and credibility gaps, coupled with the attendant
misunderstanding of objectives.

Total: 12.5 marks

(3) Nigeria is to expand and strengthen the National Planning Commission in order to
provide specialized training for officers in the ministries and planning agencies at the
federal and state levels.

Total: 12.5 marks

(4) There are three (3) main strengths of the mixed economy:

-Planning in a mixed economy is meant to provide all the freedoms of capitalism.

-The ultimate aim of planning in a mixed economy is to remove the evils of capitalism and
promote the maximum welfare of the people.

-In developing countries, economic planning is based on the concept of mixed economies.
The main aim of such planning is to increase the growth rate of the economy, given the
various limiting factors in such countries.

Any well explained four key ways carry 4 marks each.

Total: 12.5 marks

(5) Three (3) types of planning are:

-Democratic planning

-Imperative planning

-Totalitarian planning

Any well explained four key ways carry 4 marks each.

Total: 12.5 marks

(6) Four (4) challenges of the Nigerian public services are:

-Negative or poor attitude to work: Civil servants are known to display a poor attitude to
work due to inadequate salaries, poor working conditions, and the absence of job security.

-Bureaucracy: Civil servants follow precedents and adhere strictly to official rules when
carrying out decisions and policies of the government. This is mainly to observe uniformity
and impartiality, but it slows down the work of government.

-Political instability: A continuous change of government brings along a change of political

appointees like ministers, commissioners, and career-top civil servants such as the head
of service and sometimes the directors-general. -These usually come up with policies and
programs disrupting those formerly being implemented in the civil service.

Political interference: The intervention of the government in the day-to-day administration

of the civil service does not give the civil servants the necessary freedom to carry out
government policies effectively.

Any well explained four key ways carry 3 marks each.

Total: 12.5 marks

Prof. A.A. Anyebe

Examiner