Enhancing Human Capital Development and Service Delivery in Nigerian Tertiary Institutions through Effective

ithin the framework of bureaucratic and human capital theories, an eclectic approach, the study examines the nexus between academic staff recruitment in Nigerian tertiary institutions and human capital development as well as service delivery with specific reference to universities. It is generally agreed that higher education is a sine-qua-non for human capital development and efficient service delivery. Higher education is a prerequisite for the production of highly competent experts, which in turn, contributes to the development of organizations and the economy at large. For these to be achieved, the right content and academic staff must be in place to perform this varied function. However, over the years the quality of human capital coming out of Nigerian universities and its impact on service delivery has become a source of concern to employers of labour and all stakeholders. Inferential opinions have traced the problem to the recruitment of incompetent academic staff. To investigate the issues raised, the study relied heavily on primary and secondary data and multi stage sampling was used to select the sample population. The data collected was presented in pie chart and simple percentage. Similarly, in order to test the hypotheses and establish the degree of dependence or independence of the variables under investigation, the chi-square statistical technique was used. The findings of the study revealed among others, that Nigerian universities do not employ merit, qualification and competency in the academic staff recruitment. It also established that there is a significant relationship between merit, qualification and competency based academic staff recruitment and human capital development and service delivery. To enhance human capital development and service delivery in Nigerian universities, the study recommends among others, that an independent body like the National University Commission (NUC) should be given the responsibility of academic staff recruitment and promotion for all universities in the country.


Introduction
Education is one of the major decisive factors in life chances, equal opportunity and advancements.Indeed, it is the most powerful instrument for developing and empowering the citizens to master their social and cultural environment and compete for survival.It also enhances individual's chances for employment in the labour market and allows them to reap pecuniary and non-pecuniary returns and gives them opportunity for job mobility (Schultz, 1988:42).Education provides training and development that enhances workers service delivery.
Regrettably, most developing economies, although conscious of the transformation, which education brings, are yet to reap its full potential.This is because the capacity to generate and harness knowledge in the pursuit of sustainable development and improved living standards has not been fully explored.For instance, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, 2001), reveals that OECD countries accounted for 85 percent of total Research and Development investment; China, India, Brazil, and East Asia represented 11 percent; while the rest of the world Nigeria inclusive accounted for only 4 percent.While developed economies enjoy the benefits of education by promoting and producing the wealth needed to enable continued investments, in contrast, Nigeria and many developing countries have neither articulated a development strategy linking knowledge to economic growth nor built up their capacity to do so.
Arguably, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa with an estimated 167 million population i.e. 20 percent of the continent population.Unfortunately, according to Saint, Hartnet & Strassner (in Adedeji & Campbell, 2013:3) The question is what is the possibility that the quest for Nigeria's development will benefit from the emerging global knowledge economy considering the abysmal performance of its higher education system?The government must be self advice that the principal framework and mechanism for developing human capital is the education system.There are a number of resources that contribute towards the success of any education system which include finance and materials.While these resources are Enhancing Human Capital Development & Service Delivery in Nigerian Tertiary Institutions 127 important, the human capital is the most significant because it is people who have to coordinate and use all other resources.
Human capital is central in institutions building of competitive advantage, yet, for a degree of success to be achieved depends on the institution's people-embodied knowhow, which includes the knowledge, skills and abilities embedded in an institution's employees.However, in the views of Schuler & Macmillan (1984:34), institutions best able to meet this challenge are those that can acquire and utilize valuable and scarce resources.Human capital falls into this category of resources, particularly if they are properly acquired and deployed through appropriate human resource policies and practices.Here lies the importance of effective recruitment and selection exercise based on merit, qualification and competency.Recruitment and selection can be quite expensive and for genuine utilization of human resources; a rigorous and effective recruitment and selection practices will go a long way in placing the right man on the right job.A virtuous and holistic recruitment and selection procedure would eliminate the concept of "garbage in garbage out" currently witnessed in the Nigerian higher education sector.
In developing countries such as Nigeria, the influence of the State in Governmentowned Institutions as well as primordial considerations renders many human resource management best practices ineffectual.In recent time, the quality of graduates coming out of Nigeria higher institutions has become an issue of serious concern to all stakeholders as most Nigerian graduates are described as unemployable.Indeed, the purpose and philosophy of higher education as articulated by the Nigerian government in 1981 is basically utilitarian.The first purpose of exposing an individual to higher education is to enable him/her master his or her environment so as to serve and develop as a useful member of the community, while the second is to enable him/her contribute to the survival of the Nigerian society and the development of the Nigerian nation (National Policy on Education, 1981:22).This purpose remains the same till date.
However, an examination of the philosophy behind the establishment of higher education reveals, it is an institution where merit and excellence in scholarship are suppose to be the guiding ethical principles in matters of admission and examination of students, recruitment and promotion of academic and non-academic staff as well as the award of degrees.

Africa's Public Service Delivery & Performance Review
Over the years, the higher education system in Nigeria has watered down in application of these principles if not completely abandoned.In recent time, much has been said about the fallen standard of education and poor quality of Nigerian graduates.
Inferential opinions have traced the problem to lack of infrastructure, poor funding, brain drain, etc., but it would appear that little or no study has been conducted in the area of quality of personnel (lecturers) charged with imparting or transmitting knowledge in the higher education sector with the aim of determining its impact on human capital development and public service.It is against this backdrop that the paper seeks to intervene in the debate by investigating the academic staff recruitment and selection practices in Nigerian higher education system with specific reference to Nigerian federal and state universities.Although, there are private and faith based universities, our choice of federal and state universities is premised on the fact they produce majority of the human capital in the country.
To investigate the role of academic staff recruitment in human capital development and service delivery in Nigerian higher education system, the following questions and hypotheses serve as a guide to the survey in the quest for answers to the problems being investigated.

H 0:
There is no significance relationship between merit and competency based academic staff recruitment and human capital development.

H 1:
There is a significance relationship between merit and competency based academic staff recruitment and human capital development.

H 0:
There is no significance relationship between lecturers' incompetency, human capital development and service delivery.

H 1:
There is a significance relationship between lecturers' incompetency, human capital development and service delivery.
The rationale behind this study is to unravel some of the factors responsible for the poor quality of human capital produced by Nigerian universities and to create a solid basis for Nigerian universities management and other public institutions to make a standard and objective recruitment decision by selecting the right applicants as lecturers and non-academic staff alike.A sound recruitment exercise will place the square peg in a square hole and round peg in a round hole; thus, enhancing efficient and effective academic staff performance in particular and public service delivery in general.

Education, Human Capital Development and Service Delivery: Conceptual and Theoretical Insights
In discussing issues salient to this topic, it is pertinent to consider and clarify some concepts in order to situate them within the context of our discussion.Economically in the words of Boldizzoni (in Eigbiremolen & Anaduaka, 2014:27), capital is conceived of as 'those factors of production used to create goods or services that are not themselves significantly consumed in the production process, while the human element takes charge of all economic activities such as production, consumption, and transactions necessary to move the products to the consumers.This implies that human capital is a key production element that adds value to the production process.Okonjie (1999:45) conceived human capital as the abilities and skills of human resources of a country, while human capital development refers to the process of acquiring and increasing the number of persons who have the skills, education and experience that are critical for economic growth and 130 Africa's Public Service Delivery & Performance Review development of a country's economy.Human capital is the human factor in the production process; and consists of the combined knowledge, skills or competencies and abilities of the workforce (Ejere, 2011:99).Salai-i-Martin (in Adedeji & Campbell, 2013:7) also shared the same sentiment.
Human capital development is a way to fulfil the potential of people by enlarging their capabilities and enabling them to participate actively in their own development.In this respect, the right quality of personnel must be in place to transmit and impart this knowledge, skills and abilities.Yet, the availability of a competent and effective labour force does not just happen by chance but through an articulated recruitment exercise (Peretomode and Peretomode, 2001:116) based on merit and technical competence.Therefore, it is basically the active participation of people with the know-how in the human capital development process and the consequent need to have higher institutions that permit and indeed encourage that participation can guarantee the availability of quality human capital that could meet the need of the global labour market.
In the view of Omotade (1992:97), the quality of human capital constitutes the ultimate dignity of a nation.Indeed, it is the interactions of people with natural resources that constitute development.It is along this line of thought that Harbison (in Omotade, 1992:97) using the larger political economy admonished that: Human Resources, not capital, not income or material resources constitute the ultimate basis for the wealth of nations.Capital and natural resources are passive factors of production; human beings are the active agents who accumulate capitals; exploit natural resources; build social, economic and political organizations; and carry forward national development.
A cursory examination of all the resources mentioned earlier suggests that the quality of human resource is the most imperative.According to Harbison (in Omotade, 1992:97), country which is unable to develop the skills and knowledge of its people to utilize them effectively in the national economy will be unable to develop anything else.Because human resource is needed to coordinate and activate other resources; human resource is the main instrument for the attainment of institutional objectives.This view was vividly captured by Likert (in Oshionebo, 1992:97) when he succinctly posits that:

Enhancing Human Capital Development & Service Delivery in Nigerian Tertiary Institutions 131
All activities of any enterprise are initiated and determined by the persons that make up that institution.Plants, offices, computers, automated equipment, and all else that a modern firm uses are unproductive except for human effort and direction.Human beings design or order equipment; they decide where and how to use computers; they modernize or fail to modernize the technology employed; they secure the capital needed and decide on the accounting and fiscal procedures to be used.
Likert (in Oshionebo, 1992:97) went further to argue that every aspect of an institution's activities is determined by the competent, motivated and general effectiveness of its human organization.Of all the task of management, managing the human component is the central and most important task, because all else depends upon how well it is done.
The imperatives of human capital development in the achievement of sustainable development have been widely acknowledged by a number of studies.In the views of Eigbiremolen & Anaduaka (2014:26), absence of substantial investment in the development of human capital in any country, sustained development would only be a mirage, never a reality.Therefore, the place of human capital development cannot be overemphasized.Human capital development is a key ingredient for a country's transformation.Studies have established that the causal factor responsible for the impressive economic performance of highly industrialized and newly industrializing countries is an unrelenting and massive investment in human capital formation (see for example World Bank, 2012;Adedeji & Bamidele, 2003:499).
Corroborating the above submission, Dauda (in Eigbiremolen & Anaduaka, 2014:26) admonished that the differences in the level of development across nations is attributed not so much to natural resources and endowments and the stock of physical capital but to the quality and quantity of human resources.Furthermore, it is worthy of note that the wealth and prosperity of nations squarely rest upon the development of people and the commitment of their talents and energies.While capital and natural resources are passive agents, human resources are the activating agents of transformation because on it depends how all else are managed (see for example Sankay, Ismail & Shaari, 2010:65).

Africa's Public Service Delivery & Performance Review
On the other hand, service delivery refers to getting public goods and services as expected and as quick as possible by recipients.To Akhakpe (2014:376), service delivery is the degree and hallmark of excellence in the public service.To Franz (2011:106), it involves considerable human activity, hence human resource management is important as human element is often the key ingredients of service industries.To these researchers, service delivery is therefore the provision of service to the clients (buyers) in such a way and manner that the client's expectations are realized and even surpassed while at the same time, the institution or organization's integrity remains stable.Public service delivery is one of the major challenges facing developing countries like Nigeria.This should be a top priority of the government and management of Nigerian tertiary institutions if the country is to make substantial progress in socio-economic development.
In Nigeria, a number of problems confront and complicate public service delivery.For example, poor or faulty recruitment policy leads to poor selection of human capital coupled with corruption and decayed infrastructure.The quality and availability of essential services is a major indicator of good governance because public service delivery underpins the social contract between the state and its citizens which in turn portrays a healthy society.
As is with the tradition in social and management sciences, no one theoretical approach can adequately explain a social phenomena.Nonetheless, we need a platform on which to interrogate our subject of discourse.For this purpose and bearing in mind the constraints before us, we find bureaucratic and human capital theories, an eclectic approach relevant to anchor our discourse in this paper.Max Weber, an influential German sociologist and greatest apostle of bureaucracy, viewed bureaucracy as a special form of administration that is fully developed in what he terms "the modern state" in "the most advanced institutions of capitalism" (Morrison, 2006:87).These forms of institutions have gradually been displacing traditional administrative systems.
For Weber (1947), the ideal bureaucratic organization was essentially the welldesigned machine within which all the component parts work efficiently and without distraction, towards clearly defined goals.For these goals to be achieved, Weber admonished that there should a clear hierarchy of officials, clearly defined responsibilities and spheres of authority, and officials appointed on the basis of merit (competency and qualifications) to carry out their functions.The bureaucratic theory is relevant and

Enhancing Human Capital Development & Service Delivery in Nigerian Tertiary Institutions 133
applicable to the paper because the integration of theory in the paper enable us have the bases for accessing academic staff recruitment in Nigerian universities.It also enables us direct our search light for possible causes of poor human capital development in the Nigerian university system.The theory is relevant and applicable to the paper based on the fact that the input (quality of lecturers) determines the output (human capital).
Theodore Schultz (1988) proponent of human capital theory holds that the wellbeing of a society is a function not only of the traditional stocks of financial capital, labour and natural resources but also of the knowledge and skills of individuals.This theory predicts that increased knowledge and skill will yield improved economic outcomes for both individuals and societies, especially in modern societies, where it is widely held that knowledge and skill convey a greater economic and social premium than in the past.Human capital theory is relevant and applicable to the paper because higher education is a key element of human capital theory.It is viewed as the primary means of developing knowledge and skill.Most research around the human capital development and education is based on Mincer's human capital earnings function, which predicts that earnings are a function of educational attainment and work experience.
There is evidence that human capital development is a strong influence on educational policy, with statements to this effect being found in the goal and mission statements of many educational agencies and jurisdictions (in Adedeji & Campbell, 2013:6).

Nexus between Academic Staff Recruitment, Human Capital Development and Service Delivery
According to Collins & Druten (2003:24), researchers have produced compelling evidence for the causal link between how workers are being recruited, employee performance, service delivery and organisational productivity.They argue that the effectiveness of human resource practices, particularly employee selection procedures, performance appraisals, rewards and benefits management, training and development often have a direct bearing on organisational productivity and employees service delivery.
The highly educated ones appear to have a comparative advantage in understanding and adapting to new or existing ideas, production processes and service delivery.At this juncture, it is important to define the concept -university.Contemporarily, the university 134 Africa's Public Service Delivery & Performance Review is an institution of higher learning with powers to award or confer degrees.For Ross (in Asobie, 2001:47), the university is: A self-governing community with an elected hierarchy, separated from the world of commerce, involved in a mission to learn and to teach at an advanced level, using mysterious ritual and dress to dramatize its uniqueness, and requiring from its members, deep loyalty and enduring support for each other and the university.
According Weber (1947), bureaucratic institution has a well-designed mechanism within which all the component parts work efficiently without distraction, towards clearly defined goals.Morrison (2006:133) claims that by observing the roles of officials within the legal-rational authority structures as is the case in the university system, one could identify the distinctive characteristics of bureaucracy, which is: a clear hierarchy of officials, clearly defined responsibilities and spheres of authority and officials appointed on the basis of merit (their competency and qualifications) to carry out their functions.In addition, there exists a unified system of discipline and control which is based on a relatively fixed body of established rules and standardized procedures.The highpoints of Weber's arguments are that an ideal bureaucracy is one in which there exist functional specialization, hierarchy, impersonal relationship, standard procedure and rules, authority, legitimacy, efficiency and competence or fitness.The university system having these features of bureaucracy makes it a bureaucratic institution.
Efficiency here refers to the relationship between output and input.An efficient operation produces maximum output with minimum input for any given quantity and quality (Eneanya, 2009:71-72).Although, there are other features of bureaucracy, the researchers focus on efficiency is because the study is examining the relationship between the quality of input (academic staff) and the quality of output (human capital and service delivery).Contributing to this debate, Spreight (in Arhuidese, 2003:4), contend that "an organization is technically efficient if it is adequate to the demand on it."Adequacy here implies competence and capacity to deliver the goals i.e. to attain goals.Subsequently, an efficient policy may be ineffective because its activities, though efficient, are not sufficiently directed at goals and therefore not achieving such goals.Thus, efficiency is different from effectiveness.The former emphasizes means while the latter emphasizes the end of programmes (Igbokwe-Ibeto, 2011:117).

Methodology
In order to investigate how human capital development and service delivery could be enhanced through effective academic staff recruitment in Nigerian tertiary institutions, this research employed the descriptive survey method, with the researcher setting out to illustrate the association that exists among the dependent and independent variables.The researcher's main goal in a descriptive study is to describe accurately the relationship between two phenomena (academic staff, human capital development and service delivery).This method is useful because the study is interested in finding the meaning and to obtain an understanding of the issues under investigation.
The study relied heavily on primary and secondary data.The primary sources of data were both qualitative and quantitative in nature.They were based on observations as well as through the use of questionnaires.Typically, a combination of questionnaires and observations can provide more powerful data than other methods.In this regard, questionnaire were used as instrument for collecting primary data, closed ended questionnaires to be precise, where questions were structured in line with the research questions.The Liker three point rating scale questionnaire: Agree (3); Undecided (2); Disagree.The respondents were requested to rate the items according to the extent to which they agree or disagree or undecided with the underlying attributes under measurement.To supplement the data from primary source, secondary materials were sourced from academic literature on the subject matter.
The target population of the study consists of all staff and students of 113 Nigerian universities.Because the researcher cannot cover the entire population within the time limit, Walpol formula for determining sample size was employed.Thus, at a standard score corresponding to 5 percent significance level and at a sample of 0.04 errors, a sample of 600 was obtained.
In order to elicit respondents' opinion on academic staff recruitment and human capital development in Nigerian universities, a total of six hundred ( 600 State University (Middle Belt).A total of fifty (50) staff and students were chosen from each university given a total of six hundred (600).Cluster and purposive sampling technique was adopted in order to collect a balanced view of the sampled survey as well as reduce bias.However, equal numbers of respondents selected did not ensure equitable representation as the staff and students' population varies from one university to the other.Due to the secretive nature of Nigerian public service, a number of the institutions were not willing to disclose their actual staff strength and students' population.Indeed, this among others constitutes limitations of the methodology.
The decision to limit the study to twelve universities was based on the need to have a manageable sample.Moreover, twelve universities approximately are above 10 percent of the whole population.This is in line with the law of small and large numbers.As noted by Best and Khan (2006:48), a sample equal or above 10 percent is valid to generalize results for the whole population.Thus, it was deemed a representative sample with regards to the research purpose and considering the fact that the problem under investigation appears or manifests the same way in all the Nigerian tertiary institutions.
Therefore, the findings can be used to make inferential judgment on the entire tertiary education system in Nigeria.
Accordingly, a total of six hundred (600) questionnaires of ten (10) items each were administered to the respondents for the survey with the assistance of two postgraduate students in each of the selected institutions.The rationale for using questionnaire was to allow the respondents to answer at their own pace without taking them away from their work and study.

Analysis of Surveyed Data
The study adopted the quantitative technique using pie chart and simple percentage to present demographic data as well as degree of respondents agreement or otherwise

Enhancing Human Capital Development & Service Delivery in Nigerian Tertiary Institutions 137
with the research questions.Consequently, in order to test the hypotheses and establish the degree of dependence or independence of the variables under consideration, the chi-square statistical tool was used for this study.To improve on the reliability and validity of the paper, multiple secondary sources were used to minimize risk of errors.

Preliminary Analysis
A total of 600 questionnaires of 10 items each were administered to the sample population and interviews also conducted.Out of the six hundred (600) distributed questionnaires, the researcher was able to achieve questionnaire return of four hundred and eighty-two (482) usable responses representing 82 percent while one hundred and eighteen (118) were not returned out of the total distributed, yielding a response rate of 82 percent.The researchers proceeded with the analysis of the data as 82 percent response rate is regarded as satisfactory for this study.Some rules of thumb about the response rate is that a response rate of 50 percent is adequate for analysis and reporting, 60 percent is good while 70 percent is very good (Babbie and Mouton, 2001:102).

Respondents' Characteristics and Classification
This section is divided into A and B. Section A consists of the socio-demographical data of the respondents such as sex, age, education background and official status; it contains five (5) questions while section B covers the research questions based on the research objective.It also contains five (5) questions making a total of ten (10) questions in all.This result shows that there are more male than female in the surveyed respondents.

Pie Chart 1: Sex Distribution of Respondents
Even though the sex of the respondents was skewed toward males, this imbalance is representative of the Nigeria workforce dominated by men, particularly when it includes a university environment.

Pie Chart 2: Age Distribution of Respondents Source: Field Survey July, 2014
The age distribution of the respondents indicates that 168 or percent were in the age bracket of 30 years and below, 122 or 25.3 percent were between ages 31-40; 105 or 21.8 percent falls in-between ages 41-50; while age 51 and above represent 87 or 18 percent.We could categorically state that majority of the surveyed respondents fall between below 30-50 years.This is an active work force in any given institution.
Official status of the polled respondents indicates that 48 or 10 percent of them were within the rank of professors while 50 or 10.3 percent were associate professors.76 or 15.8 percent were senior lecturers.57 or 11.8 percent and 55 or 11.4 percent of respondents were lecturers 1 and 11 respectively, 48 or 10 percent and 26 or 5.4 percent were assistant lecturers and graduate assistants respectively while 40 or 8.3 percent were non-academic staff.82 or 17 percent represents the students' population.The merit of the application of the survey instrument is that the spread of the questionnaire across the identified official status enabled the study to determine the level of consciousness and awareness of respondents on the link between academic recruitment and human capital development.Educational qualification of respondents reveals that 174 or 36.1 percent of the respondents had doctorate degree (PhD) while 183 or 38 percent had masters, with another 76 or 15.7 percent who had first degree/HND.50 or 10.2 percent of the respondents had WASC/SSCE/NECO.The essence of securing information on the respondents' qualifications was to be sure that they relatively understood what the survey was about and thereby, to some extent, be able to contribute to the issues under investigation.An analysis of the above pie chart reveals that 151 or 31.1 percent of the respondents indicated that the universities adhere to the recruitment policy while 299 or 62.0 percent disagreed that universities adhere to internal recruitment and selection of academic staff policy, with another 32 or 6.6 percent who were undecided.Thus, with the majority 62.0 percent who disagreed, we can therefore conclude that Nigerian universities do not adhere to internal recruitment and selection policy of academic staff.

Pie Chart 8: Represent Opinion of respondents on whether Nigerian universities employ technical competency and qualification in recruitment of academic staff
Source: Field Survey July, 2014.
An analysis of the above pie chart reveals that 136 or 28.A cursory look at the above pie chart indicates that 298 or 61.8 percent of the respondents were of the opinion that there is a relationship between lecturers' incompetency and human capital development while 157 or 32.6 percent disagreed with another 27 or 5.6 percent who were not sure.Thus, with the majority 61.8 percent who agreed with the statement, we conclude that there is a significant relationship between lecturers' incompetency, human capital development and service delivery.

Test of Hypotheses
It will be recalled that the study identified two hypotheses.We will at this juncture test them one after the other using person chi-square test of goodness of fit.

Hypothesis I
H 0: There is no significance relationship between merit and competency based academic staff recruitment and human capital development.Interpretation: ∑ ----------------- e X 2 = 180.0 The degree of freedom for Chi-square test of goodness is given as: df = ( n -1) Where df = degree of freedom n = no responses.
Decision Criterion: If the chi-square calculated (X 2 c) is greater than the critical or tabulated value (X 2 t); reject the null hypothesis (H 0 ) and accept the alternative hypothesis (H 1 ) and then conclude that the research hypothesis is false.
Research Result: From the computation above, the chi-square calculated (X 2 c) is 180.0 while the chi-square tabulated (X 2 t) is 9.925.Thus, the chi-square calculated is greater than chi-square tabulated.On the basis of this, we can therefore reject the null hypothesis and accept the alternative hypothesis and conclude that there is a significant relationship between merit, qualification and competency based academic staff recruitment and human capital development.

Hypothesis II
H 0: There is no significance relationship between lecturers' incompetency, human capital development and service delivery.
H 1: There is a significance relationship between lecturers' incompetency, human capital development and service delivery.
place was suitable for the employee and the employee for the place.Social order presupposes the successful execution of the two most difficult managerial activities, namely good organization and good selection.The successful execution of managerial duties also involves appointing qualified candidates in the right positions.In addition, social order demands precise knowledge of the human requirements and resources of the concern and a constant balance between these requirements and resources.
The two hypotheses tested established that there is a significant relationship between merit, qualification and competency based academic staff recruitment and human capital development.This is confirmed by chi-square calculated value (X 2 c) of 180.0 while the chi-square tabulated value (X 2 t) is 9.925.Also chi-square calculated value (X 2 c) of 92.77 and the chi-square tabulated value (X 2 t) of 9.925 confirmed the fact that there is a significant relationship between lecturers' incompetency, human capital development and service delivery.This is supported by Marx Weber's bureaucratic theory that stipulates recruitment or appointment of official based on merit, technical competency and qualification.The importance of recruiting competent lecturers towards enhancing human capital development and service delivery is also supported by Cook (in Motsoeneng, 2011:96) who argues that the rational estimate technique is an important tool that assists managers to make ideal matches between subordinates' competencies, skills and job requirements.
Cook went further to state that a competent employee would be at the 2nd percentile, and one who is poor would be at the 4th percentile.Since these values correspond roughly to one standard deviation on either side of the mean, an employee at the 4th percentile is two deviations above the mean.It means that the best employees are twice as good as poor employees.The standard deviation is crucial in the equation for estimating the return on a recruitment programme, since the smaller the standard deviation, the less the difference in value between good and poor quality lectures and similarly, the bigger the standard deviation, the greater the difference between best and poor quality lecturers.Universities can save money and enhanced human capital development and service delivery by engaging competent and qualified academic staff; the better the fit, the higher the employee's productivity and the greater his or her contribution towards enhancing human capital development and public service delivery.
Enhancing Human Capital Development & Service Delivery in Nigerian Tertiary Institutions 149

Conclusion and Recommendations
From the foregoing, it is clear that higher education indeed is a sine-qua-non to human capacity building, skills and knowledge creation of any nation.Higher education is a prerequisite for the production of highly competent experts, which in turn, contributes to the development of organizations and the economy at large.For these to be achieved, the right content and personnel must be in place to perform this varied function.
Recruitment of qualified academic personnel in higher education therefore is imperative in the development of human capital of a nation and efficient public service delivery.
However, the problem of poor teaching personnel and mismatch between university programmes, human capital produced and the labour market demand is worrisome to all stakeholders.
The study concludes that with the menace of poor teaching staff in Nigerian universities occasioned by recruitment based on sentiments and primordial issues, the quest for human capital development, efficient and effective public sector service delivery in Nigeria will for long remain a mirage.The study therefore, recommends that as is the case in the Nigerian civil service, where the Civil Service Commission recruit for ministries based on request, an independent body such as the National University Commission (NUC) should be charged with the academic staff recruitment and promotion for all universities in the country, be it public or private.This will safeguard the system from the current situation where some federal and state universities in Nigeria have gradually turned into family and ethic business.Thus, making recruitment and selection in the university system subjective rather than merit based.
Teaching in the Ivory Tower and other tertiary institutions is meant for intellectual giants/elites who operating from the position of knowledge have the skills, capacity and capability to impart knowledge and not intellectual dwarfs as is the case with number of lectures in Nigerian tertiary institutions.The study also recommends that an independent body should examine the quality of creative output of lecturers before promotion to the next rank especially to the ranks of senior lecturer, associate professor and full professor.

List of References
, Nigeria has only 15 scientists and engineers engaged in research and development per million persons compared with 168 in Brazil, 459 in China, 158 in India, and 4,103 in the United States.

1.
Are there internal recruitment and selection policy in Nigerian universities as regards recruitment of academic staff? 2. Do Nigerian universities adhere to such policy?3. Do Nigerian universities employ technical competency and qualification in the recruitment of academic staff? 4. Is there any significance relationship between merit and competency based academic staff recruitment and human capital development?5. Is there any significance relationship between lecturers' incompetency, human capital development and service delivery?Enhancing Human Capital Development & Service Delivery in Nigerian Tertiary Institutions 129 ) university staff and students were randomly surveyed.The field survey made use of cluster purposive sampling which grouped the targeted population into six geo-political zones namely: South-East, South-South, South-West, North-East, North-West and the Middle-Belt.The Middle-Belt has as part of it the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.The survey employed simple random sampling technique to select two institutions from each zone.To this end, Nnamdi Azikiwe University 136 Africa's Public Service Delivery & Performance Review and Enugu State University of Science and Technology (South-East); University of Uyo and Niger Delta University (South-South); University of Ibadan and Lagos State University (South-West) were chosen.Others universities were Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University and Gombe State University (North East); Ahmadu Bello University and Bayero University (North West); and University of Jos and Kogi

Source
s Public Service Delivery & Performance ReviewAnalyses of the demographic characteristics of respondents indicate that 296 or 61.4 percent of surveyed respondents were males while 186 or 38.6 percent were females.
Pie chart 5: on length of service shows that 84 or 17.4 percent had put in 5 years and below in the service; 113 or 23.5 percent had put in between 6-10 years while 128 or 26.6 percent had served for between 11-15 years; and 100 or 20.7 percent represents those who had put in between 16-20 years; the percentage of those who had served 21 years and above was 57 or 11.8 percent.This pie chat reveals that majority of the s Public Service Delivery & Performance Review workforce has put in between 6-15 years in the service; the implication of this analysis is that majority of them still have more years before retiring because of the present policy which sets retirement age for senior professors at 70 years and doctors (PhD) 65 years of chronological age.Pie Chart 5: Educational Qualification of RespondentsSource: Field Survey July, 2014.
Development & Service Delivery in Nigerian Tertiary Institutions 141 Pie Chart 6: Opinions of respondents on whether there are clear internal policy and procedures on academic staff recruitment and selection in Nigerian universities.Source: Field Survey July, 2014.The pie chart above shows that 456 94.6 percent of respondents agreed that there are clear internal procedures on recruitment and selection of academic staff, while 26 or 5.4 percent were not sure.Thus, with the overwhelming majority 94.6 percent who agreed, we conclude that there are clear internal procedures on recruitment and selection of academic staff in Nigerian universities.It means that the polled respondents were aware of internal policies and procedures on how academic staff recruitment and selection should be conducted.Pie Chart 7: Views of respondents on whether Nigerian universities adhere to the internal recruitment 2 percent of the respondents were of the opinion that Nigerian universities employ technical competency and qualification in recruitment of academic staff while 297 or 61.6 percent disagreed that Nigerian universities employ technical competency and qualification in recruitment of academic staff.Another 49 or 10.2 percent were undecided, thus, with the preponderance of 61.6 percent who disagreed with the statement, we conclude that Nigerian universities do not employ technical competency and qualification in recruitment and selection of academic staff.Development & Service Delivery in Nigerian Tertiary Institutions 143 Pie Chart 9: Represent Views of respondents on whether there is any relationship between merit and competency based academic staff recruitment and human capital development Source: Field Survey July, 2014.A critical analysis of the above pie chart indicates that 325 or 67.4 percent of the respondents were of the opinion that there is a relationship between merit and competency based academic staff recruitment and human capital development while 98 or 20.3 percent disagreed and another 65 or 13.5 percent were not sure.Thus, with the preponderance of 67.4 percent who agreed with the statement, we conclude that there is a significant relationship between merit, qualification and competency based academic staff recruitment and human capital development.Pie Chart 10: Respondents' Views on whether there is any relationship between lecturers' incompetency and human capital development.

H 1 :
There is a significance relationship between merit and competency based academic staff recruitment and human capital development.
Yet, universities management should as a matter of fact discourage joint article publications or better come up with a template of determining the contribution of each co-author in any joint publication.Yet, to achieve recruitment of good quality (high flyers) graduates as university lecturers, this study recommends that the current recruitment policy in the university that 150 Africa's Public Service Delivery & Performance Review accommodates graduates with Second Class Lower degrees should be modified to make provision on preference for candidates with outstanding results of First and Second Class Upper degrees.The Nigerian universities should imbibe the prescripts of Marx Weber as regards recruitment and the global best practices that place preference on merit, qualification, competency and service delivery.In addition, as a matter of necessity, verification of credential and reference checks of new entrants (lecturers) into the university system must be effected before confirmation of appointments.For example, if undergraduates in tertiary institutions are subjected to certificates verification as a form of attestation of results presented, the university system and management should as well verify credentials of newly employed lecturers as well as conducting quarterly personnel audit to check the growing incidence of fake certificates, academic doctors and professors. Adedeji, A.S & Campbell, O.S. 2013.The role of higher education in human capital development.Retrieved from http://ssrn.com/abstract=2380878Accessed on 15/08/2014  Adedeji, S.O.& Bamidele, R.O. 2003.Economic impact of tertiary education on human capital development in Nigeria.Human resource development in Africa.Selected papers for 2002 annual conference, Nigerian economic society, University of Ibadan, 499-522  Akhakpe, I.P. 2014.Bureaucracy and good governance.Lagos: Pumark Publishers. Arhuidese, J.E. 2003.Target setting and performance measurement for public and private sector, Global forum for manpower development: Developing human resources skills Held for CBN Directors in Jos pp 1-11. Asobie, A. 2001."Nature and ethics of university administration" in I. Olojede & B. Fajonyomi (eds.),Ethics and Public Accountability in Nigeria, Lagos: A-Triad Associates  Babbie, E & Mouton, J. 2001.The practice of social research, Cape Town: Oxford University Press  Best, W. & Kahn, V. 2006.Research in education, Essex: Person Education