Ahmadu Bello University

Distance Learning Center

Masters in Public Administration

(MPA)

Post Graduate Handbook

First Semester
S/N Course Code Course Title Credit
Unit
1. PADM801 Organisational Theory & Public Admin. 3
2. PADM803 Research Methods 3
3. PADM805 Public Policy Analysis 3
4. PADM809 Public Enterprise Management 3
5. PADM817 Conflict Management 3

ELECTIVES
6. PADM811 Project Management 3
7. PADM813 Rural and Urban Development 3
TOTAL 18

Second Semester
1. PADM802 Nigerian Government & 3
Administration 3
2. PADM804 Advanced Descriptive Statistics 3
3. PADM806 Public Personnel Management 3
4. PADM808 Public Financial Management 3
5. PADM810 Development Administration
ELECTIVES
6. PADM812 Comparative Local Government Inter- 3
7. PADM816 Governmental Relations 3
TOTAL 21

Third Semester
1. PADM831 Comparative Public Administration 3
2. PADM833 e-Governance in the Public Sector 3
3. PADM835 Administrative Law 3
4. PADM892 Research Project 6
5. PADM882 Seminar 1
TOTAL 16
Synopses of Courses
Presented below are the synopses of all the courses and the Units of each course
have been indicated.

General Courses:
PADM 801: ORGANIZATIONAL THEORY & PUBLIC MANAGEMENT
3 Credit Units
The course is designed to explore the theoretical and methodological contours of
public administration as a specialized field of study in social science. Such theoreti-
cal and methodological stream to be covered will be examined and explained in
terms of their implications on styles and methods of management practices as well
as a theoretical approach to study of Public Administration. The conceptual appara-
tus to be developed in the course will lead to an explanation of the context of
bureaucracy as an institutional mechanism specifically necessary for efficient man-
agement of industrial activity.

PADM 802: NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT & ADMINISTRATION 3 Credit Units

This course will explore the political and administrative history of Nigeria. In the
process, students will be exposed to an understanding of the colonialists and Nigeri-
an political leaders in the constitutional development of Nigeria, their philosophies,
strengths, weaknesses and the contemporary challenges.

PADM 803: RESEARCH METHOD 3 Credit Units

The course is designed to enable students to apply relevant research methods and
statistics to social and political problems which implies how a method or statistics
can be applied to policy and administrative situations. It will equip students with
research methods skills which they can utilize in the work environment. At the end,
students will be able to design a research project, use simple displays of data to
provide useful summary information, analyse and interpret data, write and present
a research report.

PADM 804: ADVANCED DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS 3 Credit Units

This course is designed to teach the students basic statistics and their application to
research and the execution of administrative functions.

PADM 805: PUBLIC POLICY ANALYSIS 3 Credit Units

The course aims to provide professional education in all aspects of public policy,
from issue generation, articulation of demands and agenda setting through deci-
sion-making and program development to policy implementation and evaluation of
impacts. The course provides insights into and understanding of what governments
do, why they do it, and how.
PADM 806: PUBLIC PERSONNEL ADMINISTRATION 3 Credit Units
The course is designed to examine the role of people in public organizations, the
personnel functions from recruitment to selection, career development, labour
relations and trade unionism. Because human resources are central to obtaining
organizational results, all public sector organization managers with an interest in
organizational efficiency must make the effective management of people a pre-
dominant aspect of their occupation. Students will be exposed to the theories, tech-
niques and procedures of public personnel administration and their skills will be
developed to be able to formulate prescriptions aimed at improving the manage-
ment of human resources in the public sector.

PADM 808: PUBLIC FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT 3 Credit Units

This course is designed to make a critical appraisal of the challenges that influence
fiscal decision makers in their day-to-day operations. Students will at the end be
able to relate or contextualize public finance experiences in Nigeria within their
wider contexts, as well as be able to critically assess practical constraints which
developing countries face in their attempt to mobilize resources for economic
development.

There have been debates on how a country’s resources can be efficiently mobilized
and disbursed without engendering dislocations in the operations of the economy
and social welfare in general with considerations for the tension between “efficien-
cy” and “equity”. Increased participation of financial institutions in domestic fiscal
policy making systems and the “donor conditionalities” with their resultant impacts
on public welfare are some of the issues to be explored in the course. Students will
be exposed to questions on whether the public sector is really necessary, what con-
stitutes a sound tax policy, how budgets can be designed to enhance their capacity
as tools of fiscal management among others.

PADM 809: PUBLIC ENTERPRISES MANAGEMENT 3 Credit Units

This course is designed to explore the mission of public enterprises, to review their
performance while highlighting some of the problems associated with their opera-
tions, as well as to examine whether privatization is the best alternative for improv-
ing the performance of state-owned enterprises in developing countries. The course
will also examine how managers in such organizations translate purpose and peo-
ple’s efforts into operations and correspondingly, how managers ensure that actions
fit purpose. This process involves difficult and distinct public managerial actions
which students will be exposed to.
PADM 810: DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION 3 Credit Units
Development administration represents aspects of public administration that are
essential for the carrying out of policies, plans, projects and programmes to improve
social and economic conditions. The course arises out of the recognition that there
is a need in the post-independence era to undertake sustainable development. It is
aimed at equipping students with the appropriate theory and practice of develop-
ment administration so that at the end, students will be able to examine and ana-
lyze issues in order to determine means of enhancing the administrative and mana-
gerial capacity of development management.

PADM 811: PROJECT ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION (ELECTIVE) 3 Credit Units

This course focuses on the process of project planning, implementation and evalua-
tion; the methods of assessing project acceptance and effectiveness. It combines
theory and practice on the modes of data gathering, analysis, and evaluation. The
course is aimed at equipping students to effectively operate as development agents
after the completion of the course. Students will be taught among others the
nature of projects, fundamentals of projects, project evaluation and systems of
evaluation.

PADM 812: COMPARATIVE LOCAL GOVERNMENT (ELECTIVE) 3 Credit Units

Local government has been recognized as the third tier of government. The course
is designed to explain the basic elements of local government, its justification, oper-
ations, evolution and the different models. It aims to make a comparative analysis of
its evolution in Nigeria, its functions, roles and challenges in a changing world.

PADM 813: URBAN & RURAL DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION 3 Credit Units

Over sixty percent of the population in developing countries resides in the rural
areas with all the attendant poverty and lack. A high percentage of the youth are
also moving from there to the urban centers in order to escape poverty but end
increasing the number of the urban poor. The twin issues of rural development and
urban development must be considered in any effort to foster national develop-
ment. This course is designed to equip students with the knowledge about the
dynamics of rural economy, the challenges of rural and urban living, as well as the
administrative structures and strategies that could be employed to promote devel-
opment of the rural areas in a globalized world.

PADM816: INTER-GOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS 3 Credit Units

The principal objectives of the course are to acquaint students with various concep-
tual models of federalism which help to explain the nature and working of
inter-governmental systems, to examines the forces of changes and the factors
which preserve federal systems, to understand the dynamics of non-government
relations, types of conflict and co-operation between various levels of government,
to explore the challenges of federal systems especially the problem of public
finance, ethnicity, civil rights and urban governance, to study policy development
and proposals for public management and the processes of federal policy imple-
mentation.
PADM817: CONFLICT MANAGEMENT 3 Credit Units
The aim of the course is to acquaint students with the meanings, nature, causes,
types, dimensions and effects of conflicts. The theories of conflict shall also be criti-
cally examined. The strategies for conflict management will be identified and
X-rayed. The efficacy of the strategies will be examined within the context of organ-
isational, and national, international arena.

PADM831: COMPARATIVE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION 3 Credit Units

The course covers the concept of comparison in public administration, and exam-
ines the context and system of administration in selected developed and develop-
ing countries. It emphasizes the political and policy-making roles of public bureau-
cracies, the relationship between organized interests and public agencies and the
problems of bureaucratic accountability of political accessory in nation and the
globe.

PADM833: e-GOVERNANCE IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR/ELECTRONIC GOVERNANCE

ADMINISTRATION 3 Credit Units
This course is designed to familiarize students with the approaches to e-gover-
nance; five stages of e-governance in the application of Internet facilities in the
planning, implementation and evaluation of service delivery. It examines the three-
fold classification of e-governance; e-governance as government to government,
government to business and government to citizens. Online service delivery, in
health care, education, agriculture, judicial administration, business, arts, culture,
rural and urban development, and local authority, state and federal to e-governance
and strategies for overcoming the barriers.

PADM 835: ADMINISTRATIVE LAW 3 Credit Units

Administrative law is the law pertaining to the administration of the state. It is an
instrument needed by the central government to effectively implement its policies.
This course will significantly focus on the nature and extent of the remedies avail-
able to members of the public to protect them against administrative abuses.