1 ENGAGING THE CHALLENGES OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN PUBLIC ORGANISATIONS IN NIGERIA By Prof. Fab Obeta Onah Professor of Public Administration and Local Government University of Nigeria Introduction

The increasing importance of people as the primary sustainable source of competitive advantage makes it even more important that dedicated resources and thinking time are applied to the strategies through which people are developed and managed.
- CIPD, 2001

I remain honoured, and humbled by this opportunity given to me to share my experiences with distinguished personalities here present. I thank God for making this lecture possible and even thank Him more for making it possible for all of us to be present here today. Issues in human resource management concern all of us if we remember that at one time or the other we are challenged to take a second look at the responses, attitudes, interests, competencies, etc of people associated with us. Sometimes, we are also required to be in control of other people whose behaviour is always intangible, unpredictable and subjective. The world in which human resource managers exist and in which they interact, is continually changing, generating new issues and conundrums to consider. While in most cases, managers have a fair degree of choice about how to deal with new ideas and new sets of circumstances, the choices themselves are often difficult. Attempt is made in this lecture to clearly define and contextualize Human Resource (HR) Management in complex organisations. Some measure of energies will be deployed to identifying the contemporary challenges facing HR management in our immediate environment. A central aspect of this lecture will be to package some mitigative and pragmatic measures relevant to our interest as stakeholders in public organisations. I shall take the liberty of my being a staff and therefore, a primary