implementation is concerned. However, the quality of recruitment to the civil service is compromised by dependence on extraneous factors such as nepotism and political influence. The civil service is poorly remunerated, equipped and motivated. Government at all levels is unable to provide adequate public goods and services. Government agencies lack the necessary institutional infrastructure that should enable them to supply goods and services efficiently. To date, corruption and mismanagement of public resources have increased tremendously and have become a hallmark of service delivery and the transaction of official business. Law enforcement agencies such as the police are often accused of extorting money from private and commercial vehicle operators, even though they received a substantial salary increment from the government quite recently. 285. The transition from decades of military rule to a constitutionally elected, civil democratic dispensation, and the consolidation of this dispensation, has not proved easy. One of the main challenges is the need to find sufficient civil servants who believe in civic responsibility and in the transformation and development agenda, as required by the new political dispensation in Nigeria. Interaction with state and nonstate stakeholders at different centres of the country indicated that the current democratic government inherited a civil service that is: highly regimented and militarised; slow to respond to technological change and modern organisational methods; corrupt in virtually all its affairs; grossly undisciplined, frustrated and poorly paid; and declining in efficiency, effectiveness and productivity. 286. These problems are not unique to the civil service. They also exist in other public service areas such as: electricity and power; telecommunications; law enforcement and security; the enforcement of regulations and control; tax and revenue collection; infrastructural maintenance, rehabilitation and development; and social and welfare services like education, health, potable water and sanitation. The provision of such social and welfare services is inadequate at present. Further, the public service is poorly equipped. Working environments in the public service are not motivating enough, while training to inculcate new skills has been far from adequate. 287. According to the stakeholders met, the civil/public service suffers from the legacy of long military rule and abuses. Under military rulers who held sway in Nigeria for long periods, the tenets of civil service employment were ignored. The result was that ministers recruited civil servants from their villages, creating a ‘bottom-heavy’ service with about 70 per cent of its workers in the lower cadres. 288. The public service has also been plagued by the problem of ‘ghost workers’ whose names are placed on the payroll by corrupt officials to illegally enrich themselves. Thus, there has been, and still is, very low public respect and confidence, as well as widespread cynicism about the performance of government and civil servants. Accountability and effectiveness in the civil/public service 289. The constitution of Nigeria provides for a constitutional principle known as the Federal Character Principle, which obliges the FCC to: work out 107