Concepts of national unity: Bureaucratic decision‐making in the national youth service corps of Nigeria*

The research was conducted during 1986 during my stay in Nigeria on a Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship. It goes without saying that I am grateful to the Fulbright Program for making it possible for me to spend nine months in Nigeria and that the Program is not responsible for any interpretations I wish to make of Nigerian history and politics.

I want to thank the officials of the NYSC, at the Directorate Headquarters and at State Secretariants, for allowing me access to published and unpublished information and for supporting the idea and practicalities of this research. All documents which are cited were available at the library at the Directorate Headquarters or were given to me by officials. I have not indicated with any precision who gave me which data or interpretation, not because the people I talked to wished it, but because I would not like to see anyone make adverse use, if not now then later ‐ and who can tell what will happen? — of the courtesy and co‐operation shown to me. They may not always like the conclusions I draw from these data. I hope they will understand that my critique reflects my strong belief that this is a worthwhile programme which should be made to work as well as possible.

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size

Notes

The research was conducted during 1986 during my stay in Nigeria on a Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship. It goes without saying that I am grateful to the Fulbright Program for making it possible for me to spend nine months in Nigeria and that the Program is not responsible for any interpretations I wish to make of Nigerian history and politics.

I want to thank the officials of the NYSC, at the Directorate Headquarters and at State Secretariants, for allowing me access to published and unpublished information and for supporting the idea and practicalities of this research. All documents which are cited were available at the library at the Directorate Headquarters or were given to me by officials. I have not indicated with any precision who gave me which data or interpretation, not because the people I talked to wished it, but because I would not like to see anyone make adverse use, if not now then later ‐ and who can tell what will happen? — of the courtesy and co‐operation shown to me. They may not always like the conclusions I draw from these data. I hope they will understand that my critique reflects my strong belief that this is a worthwhile programme which should be made to work as well as possible.