author(s)
Igbokwe-Ibeto Chinyeaka Justine, Nnaji Ifeoma Loretho and Nwobi Fidelia C

abstract
The issue of public service delivery in Nigeria has been a high priority subject for researchers and practitioners alike. The Nigerian public sector lacks the capacity to constitute the linchpin of national development. This article therefore, examines the contradictions that limit the capacity of the public sector to perform. Within the framework of political-economy theory, this article examined the Nigerian public sector management at the theoretical level with the aim of understanding its impediments and exploring the imperatives. The article relied on the political economy theory to explain the dynamics and shifts in the management of the public sector. The political economy approach is predicated on the primacy of material condition. The analysis of the economic sub-structure assists to account for, and explain the power politics behind the public sector management as well as elucidates on the character of the state, nature of its governing class and the mechanisms of domination. The paper concludes that, the Nigerian state and its actors have been the major impediments to the deepening of the public sector management. The Nigerian public sector requires reconstituting in the sense that would make it humane, benevolent and less vulnerable to hijack by the political class.