ETHNICITY AND RECRIUTMENT IN THE CIVIL SERVICE IN RIVERS STATE

Abstract

This study examines ethnicity and recruitment in the civil service in Rivers state with a view to determining its prospects and challenges. This is because in Nigerian industrial organizations, ethnic sentiments have overtaken genuine sense of commitment and direction in the recruitment of workforce. Recruitment policy of the civil service hinges on merit principles for thorough fairness. Thus, with the merit concept in view, the efficiency of public bureaucracies will be identified. The merit concept constitutes a rundown of criteria for employment into the civil service. The practicality of the above regulations means that recruitment cuts across class, ethnic and religious lines. In Rivers State, the recruitment in the civil service do not hold water because of the prevailing problems of god-fatherism, favouritism and ethnicity. In this study, survey method, questionnaire and personal interviews were used as the main instruments for collecting the primary data. Questionnaire was based on the research hypotheses are Z test was used to analyze the data based on what transpired in the field. Ten ministries were sampled for the study out of twenty-three, they are ministries of justice, information, education, women affairs, Agriculture, health, transport, finance and culture and tourism. 1000 copies of questionnaire were distributed across these ministries at 100 copies each. On the whole 800copies were properly fill and returned. Questionnaire was based on likert scale of strongly agreed (SA), Agreed (A), undecided (UD), strongly disagreed (SD) and disagreed (D). The result showed that merit principles is a measure in recruitment for the effective functioning of the civil service. The researcher recommends that the merit concept that constitutes a rundown of criteria for employment into the civil service should be emphasized