ACCOUNTABILITY AS AN ETHICAL VALUE IN NIGERIA’S PUBLIC SERVICE: INSIGHT FROM THE PARABLE OF THE TALENTS IN MATTHEW 25:14-30

Abstract

Public service is a machinery for a nation’s national development. It provides the required human and material resources needed for such development. Its efficiency and effectiveness could be determined by its quality sevice delivery geared towards the realization of the common good. On the other hand, its inefficiency is a cog in the wheel of progress and as such retards the nation’s development. Observations have shown that Nigeria’s public service has experienced lots of challenges which has affected the nation’s development.The observed problems are inextricably linked to poor accountability consciousness. This paper, employs the pericope of the parable of talents in Matthew 25:14-30 as a framework which illustrates accountability as an ethical value and as such, an indispensable tool in public service.The work adopts literary critical method and submits that for Nigeria to experience formidable and viable public service, accountability as an ethical value should be held at esteem.