Abstract:

Successive governments in Nigeria have been undertaking different administrative reforms and considerable efforts in order to make the Nigerian Public Service transparent and accountable to the citizens. This is in recognition of transparency as one of the key elements of good governance and germane to the country’s quest for a corrupt-free nation. It is widely upheld that transparency does not only allow public insight in the activities of the government and its agencies, it also enable them to monitor and control the decision-making process. In recognition of the importance of transparency to quality service delivery, many advanced countries have adopted Information Communication Technologies in their public services to strengthen the relationships between government and the citizens and allow the later track the activities, and oversee the behaviours of public office holders. In this regards, e-government has been found to increase citizens’ access to governmental information and thus, able to track the decisions and actions of government. The aim of this study is to interrogate the adoption of e-government in Nigeria for a transparent public service. The work reveals that the continuous diffusion of the Internet and mobile technologies, a concomitant of the democratization of the telecommunication space following the Telecommunication Act (2003), has increased citizens’ accessibility and usage of ICTs. The growing, acceptance and usage of ICTs in the country thus signal the potential of e-government as a tool for enhancing openness in the Nigerian Public Service. The question now is whether the  growth in ICT has really translated to transparency in the Nigeria’s public sector and service delivery especially in rural areas.