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Africa’s Public Service Delivery and Performance Review (APSDPR) has evolved over the years and is presently making its mark in the scheme of research and scholarly publications with interest in African countries and around the world. The articles in this edition are diverse, drawing from wide geopolitical reach, and basically topical.
In a timely book review, Samuel Koma retitled Professor Edwin Ijeoma’s South Africa’s Public Administration in Context as repositioning ‘Public administration in Africa: A perennial challenge for academics’, thereby aligning it with epistemological and contextual realities in the field of Public Administration and Management.
The article ‘Evaluation of industrial relations mechanism in trade dispute settlement in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria (2003–2015)’, by Samuel Otohinoyi, Weinoh Oboromeni and Seth Christopher, reviews the effectiveness of industrial relations mechanisms in trade dispute settlement in the institution, finds breaches of collective agreement as fundamental to the identified disputes and recommends strict adherence to the provisions of Trade Dispute Act to promote industrial harmony.
Noah Marutlulle, in the article ‘Causes of informal settlements in Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality: An exploration’, evidentially challenges the view that causes of informal settlement in Ekurhuleni and other parts of South Africa are predominantly the apartheid government, and underscores that the present government and population growth, among others, are rather the responsible factors.
In the article ‘Leadership training and delivery prospects of team leaders in Communication Network Support Services Ltd’, Ilorin, Abdulahi Olatunji, Ademola Ojelabi, Abdulwaheed Isiaq, Issah Moshood and Amali Ewaode make a groundbreaking study of the importance of leadership training for improving delivery.
In another article, ‘Managing Nigeria’s development through the public budget: Lessons from the foundations laid by Okotie-Eboh, 1958–1965’, Adetunji Ogunyemi underscores the role of the individual in shaping the course of national development.
The article on religion, culture and political corruption in Nigeria by Dhikru Yagboyaju notes the interconnectedness between religion, culture and development, adopting the interpretative and descriptive methodology for its analysis.
Francis Nwankwo and Chinwe Okeke’s article ‘Rural entrepreneurship and rural development in Nigeria’ using Oyi Local Government Area in Anambra State examines the phenomena and underscores that rural entrepreneurship helps increase output, create employment and reduce rural–urban migration in Nigeria, among others.
In the article, ‘Conceptualising megacities and megaslums in Lagos, Nigeria’, Olayinka Akanle and Gbenga Adejare analyse the pros and cons of the emergence of megacities, especially the outgrowth of megaslums.
Giles Kahika and Gerald Kariyeija examine the relationship between institutional roles and the implementation of local economic development (LED) in Uganda using Kasese District as a case study and reveal that there exists a positive significant relationship between technical roles, political roles, civil society roles and private sector roles in the implementation of LED.
The article ‘Enhancing public project implementation in Botswana during the NDP 11 period’ reviews public implementation in Botswana and recommends improvement for the NDP 11 period (2017/2018–2022/2023).
In ‘Analysis of the paralysis of government leadership in sub-Saharan Africa’, Robert Dibie and Josephine Dibie examine the conflict and economic development in selected countries in sub-Saharan Africa, establish a negative correlation between authoritarian political leaderships and recommend internal and external mediation and peace education mechanisms, among others.
Ntikelelo Breakfast, Gavin Bradshaw and Richard Haines examine political apathy among students of Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and find that there is no political apathy among the students.
Bernard Rasila’s article, ‘Assessing challenges to ineffective communication in government institutions: A case study of Vuwani area, Limpopo, South Africa’, finds that although there was some communication between government institutions, including the MDB and community members, this does not satisfy the latter, and hence violent protests. It suggests that strategies for effective communication by state functionaries should be provided to avoid violent protests that are caused by ineffective communication within the community.
Keneilwe Molosi-France and Kenneth Dipholo in ‘Assessing the role of local institutions in participatory development: The case of Khwee and Sehunong settlements in Botswana’ find that weak role of the VDC and unequal power relations hinder community participation and recommend that the Government of Botswana should commit itself to genuine community participation.
Finally, the article ‘State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC) and local government elections in Nigeria’ assesses the overall impact of electoral contest at the local government level and finds that the elections are not given due importance by state governments in the political landscape of their state because of the fear of playing into the hands of political rivals. The study recommends that SIEC should be phased out and local government elections in Nigeria should be keyed into the electoral process of the country.
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