Fighting corruption in Nigeria: excessive rhetoric and indeterminate bureaucratic practices in the implementation of SERVICOM

This paper explores the SERVICOM reform, which was instituted in 2004 to fight the corruption and inefficiency considered to plague the Nigerian Civil Service. Using the method of 'following the policy', the paper demonstrates the meaning of SERVICOM for its various stakeholders: United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) officers, Nigerian bureaucrats, SERVICOM officers and citizens. The paper also shows how SERVICOM is made in the indeterminate bodily movements and social interactions of street-level bureaucrats rather than in the policy models crafted by experts. Not only has SERVICOM been incoherently implemented, it has also has been characterised by excessive rhetoric, which has constructed the idea of a good-willed technocratic state, eliciting ambivalence and catharsis in public discourse. Further, DFID officers have construed the reform as a success. This research provides an ethnographic perspective on how transnational 'good governance' initiatives in Africa are translated on the ground.