ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS IN PROMOTING TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION: A STUDY OF THE NIGERIA LABOUR CONGRESS (NLC), AKWA IBOM STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study examined the role of civil society organisations in promoting transparency and accountability in public administration in Nigeria, using the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Akwa Ibom State Council, as the case study. The study addressed persistent transparency and accountability deficits in Nigeria's public administration and the limited empirical attention given to labour-based civil society organisations at the sub-national level. Guided by the Principal-Agent Theory, the study was guided by two specific objectives: to analyse the strategies employed by the Council to promote transparency; and to evaluate the impact of its advocacy on accountability among public officials. The study adopted a descriptive survey design, drawing a sample of 397 respondents from a population of 52,000 public servants using the Taro Yamane formula and multi-stage sampling. Data were collected with a structured, validated and reliable questionnaire (Cronbach's alpha = 0.86) and analysed using means, standard deviations, simple linear regression and Pearson correlation. Findings showed that the Council employed identifiable strategies that significantly predicted transparency and accountability, and that its advocacy had a significant but moderate impact on accountability. The study concluded that the Council plays a significant role in promoting transparency and accountability, and recommended that it strengthen its digital advocacy, internal governance and oversight capacity, while government formalises its engagement with organised labour.