PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION IN NIGERIA: A CASE STUDY OF AKWA IBOM STATE LOCAL GOVERNMENT SERVICE COMMISSION

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study
Over the years, personnel management in both public and private sector has been a serious issue for concern not only to employers of labour but also to the general public. Personnel management is an aspect of management that involves human resources, planning, human relationship, employee’s motivation and workers integration. Determination of physical well-being of employees has increasingly become a controversial and intractable topical issue partly in Nigeria as a developing country and wholly in Africa where personnel management has radically deviated from the primary role of filling, record keeping, and settlement of employee’s dispute in an organisation.

Indeed, the importance of staff welfare and development is obvious given the growing complexity of the work environment, the rapid change in organizations and advancement in technology, among others, personnel management helps to ensure that organizational members works in a conducive environment and possess the knowledge and skills they need to perform their jobs effectively, take on new responsibilities, and adapt to changing conditions. However, research shows that staff welfare and development in the Nigerian public service particularly at local government has not been given due attention, due to the high level of corruption in the system.

Onah (2003) and Ezeani (2004) observed that one of the factors constraining effective performance of local government in Nigeria is inadequate training and development of staff and motivating them to carry out their duties efficiently and effectively. In an effort to address the problem of staff training and development in the local government system in Nigeria, the Federal Military Government in 1976 introduced someadministrative reforms which seek to improve efficiency and effectiveness of local government administration through viable staff manpower training and development. In 1979, the same military government decided to use three universities specifically from the department of public administration for the training and development of programmes of staff in the local government. These universities include; University of Nigeria – Nsukka, Ahmadu Bello University – Zaria and Obefemi Awolowo University – Ile-ife (Ezeani et al., 2004). Moreso, the Trade Union Decree of 1973 brought about central labour organisation and brink of Nigerian labour organisation which facilitated the development of personnel management in various workplaces in Nigeria (Okpata, 2004).

Despite these recognitions of the importance of staff welfare and development by management experts and government on local government reforms in Nigeria, the experience of staff development in the local government system has not shown that investment in human capital ins a means of improving effectiveness of the system. Therefore, this study intends to investigate the Local Government Service Commission and personnel management involvement in the Nigerian Local Government System with particular reference to the Akwa Ibom State Local Government Service Commission.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
In public administrative management such as local government administration, little or no attention is often paid to personnel management as an indispensible tool for local government administration. In any organisaiton, public or private personnel management plays an indispensible role in the success and growth of the organisation.
A cursory look at local government management in the state typifies that they cannot perform optional because they see personnel management strategies as irrelevant. No wonder local governments in the state are totally dependent on government subsidy. In ability to cater for the growth of the local government is the resultant effect of unproductivity. Nevertheless, this trend has seriously impinged on staff welfare because employees are not given adequate attention despite the financial resources allocated to the local government councils; investment in human resources is still inadequate. This is as a result that effective local government administration in Nigeria with reference to the AkwaIbom State local government service commission has come under severe stress time. As Onah (2003) observed, this stems from the poor investment in human resources management in Nigerian public service, he also noted that the workforce in Nigerian public service is generally under-tapped, under-utilised and therefore falls shorts of it anticipated contributions to the realization of organisational goals.

1.3 Objectives of the Study
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effective involvement of personnel management in the local government administration, with specific focus on Akwa Ibom State Local Government Service Commission.
The specific objectives of the study were:
To identify the significant relationship between personnel management and local government administration.
To find out the effect of the personnel management in the growth of the local government.
To investigate how well the personnel management influence the local government commission.
To assess the level of awareness of the personnel management in the development and welfare the workforce