The need for enhancing the development process in the developing nations is everbecoming more critical and urgent. The pace at which this can be realized is hinged essentially onthe ability of the government to formulate appropriate policies and, very importantly, on thecapability of the public bureaucracy to effectively implement the formulated policies. Over theyears in Nigeria, numerous brilliant policies have been formulated and implemented. Yet there isno apparent and significant development to show for that as evidenced by the fact that Nigeria hascontinued to remain in the category of the Least Developed Countries of the world. This suggeststhat mere formulation of policies should become not the major issue in Nigeria but rather theireffective implementation as it is only effectively implemented policies that can bring aboutnational development. Against this background, the study explored the importance of publicpolicy in governance and public administration-generally, deeply discussed public bureaucracyand its role in policy implementation, critically examined and analyzed the key obstaclesinhibiting the public bureaucracy in Nigeria from effectively implementing policies. In carryingout the study, the secondary sources of information or data gathering were mostly relied on andconsequently, content analysis technique was adopted in the analysis. The basic finding is thatthere exists, indeed, some factors and circumstances that constitute serious obstacles to effectivepolicy implementation by the public bureaucracy in Nigeria. These factors, among others, includethe ineffective and corrupt political leadership under which the public bureaucracy in Nigeriathrives, the pervasive and deep rooted corruption within the public bureaucracy and the pressureand influence of primordial demands and values on the bureaucracy which negatively effectimplementation activities and processes. Recommendations offered to overcome the obstacles andchallenges and to reposition the Nigeria public bureaucracy for effective implementation ofpolicies include, basically, that government should work towards ensuring the evolvement of bothpurposeful and responsible political and bureaucratic leaderships as well as work towards furtherrealization of politics and administration dichotomy in Nigeria in order to create room for thebureaucracy to operate and implement policies essentially on the basis of laid down idealbureaucratic rules and principles. The bureaucrats need too to strongly de-emphasize primordialconsiderations and to resist primordial pressures and demands for special favours in policyimplementation activities and processes while government also need to constantly developappropriate programs for improving the working conditions, and other incentives for the publicbureaucrats in order to build their morale and commitment to public service. This, too, couldreasonably diminish the propensity among the bureaucrats to misappropriate funds allocated forimplementing development policies.