Abstract

The colonial state emerged to serve the economic and political interests of the colonizing power. This state was created to formally organise the exploitation of the colonised territory in the interest of the metropolitan entity. Within the framework of political-economy theory, this article examined the Nigerian state and public sector management at the theoretical level with the aim of understanding the Nigerian state in terms of its integration into the global economy as a peripheral entity. The article relied on the political economy paradigm 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. This approach also elucidates on the character of the state, nature of its governing class and the mechanisms of domination. It concludes that, the Nigerian state and its actors have been major impediments to the deepening of the public sector management. The Nigerian state requires reconstituting in the sense that would make it humane, benevolent and less vulnerable to hijack by the political class.