THE CONFLICTS BETWEEN ADMINISTRATORS AND PROFESSIONAL CADRE OFFICERS IN THE CIVIL SERVICE OF NIGERIA

Abstract

The article reviewed the conflicts between the administrators and the professional cadre officers in the Civil Service of Nigeria. literature materials were sourced from Journals, conference papers, government documents , bulletins etc. They were then discussed and reviewed.This problem is not peculiar to Nigeria alone, but Nigeria's colonial antecedent has exacerbated it. Since the Nigerian civil service at the time of independence was modeled after the British civil service The Udoji Public Service Review Commission report of 1974 devoted special attention to the problem, but came up with solutions that were unsatisfactory. The 1988 civil service reforms was able to mitigate this problem to some extent and more so by the vAllison Ayida Review Panel of 1994 to 1998. The article advocated the use of seniority and merit in the appointments of Permanent Secretaries and Heads of the civil services, Heads of Parastatals as well as promotions to the rank of Directors ,newly appointed permanent Secretaries from the Professional Cadre should be posted to technical Minstries or Departments and those from the administrative cadre to the adminstrarive management departments to garner some experiences before they can be posted to other ministries and departments Finally, the article stressed the fact that there will always be conflicts between Administrators and professional experts and that wisdom should be applied to have a harmonious working relationship.