Granting his maiden interview as Registrar in a first generation federal university in Nigeria, an astute Administrator, who had suddenly come into awareness of the importance of his position and the urgency of reconstruction and rehabilitation, promised to restore ‘faith in the system’. One might wish to ask; what does it take to restore faith in the system?A SYSTEM is a form of mechanism based on the principles of complementarity and symbiosis. The interplay of these two principles energizes the system and makes it function maximally to achieve set goals. Where these structuring principles are lacking, the system would not be able to achieve and attain the heights necessary for its overwhelming success and for achieving the desired organizational goals. More importantly, the ‘workers’ of the system would feel less devoted and less bound to the system such that it would affect the overall productivity of service and consequently, dampen institutional spirit. This study focuses on the importance of building, maintaining and sustaining the consciousness of ‘faith’ in the university bureaucracy. It shall attempt to present in a nutshell the ideas behind bureaucracy, and the intent behind ‘street-level bureaucracy’ as it affects corporate practice in Nigerian universities. It shall further proceed to enumerate merits and de-merits of bureaucracy and its overall impact of university administration in Nigeria.
Keywords: Bureaucracy, Nigeria, Universities, corporate practice
