CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
        Secretary has always been a vital link between those who make management level decisions and those who react to and implement the decisions. In the present role of administrative assistant, however, a competent and responsible secretary serve not only as a link between management and staff but also a key support person for the executives.
        The word secretary has been understood in different ways by different people. Some see if as a typist or a receptionist or even as an office clerk.
        According to Azuka and Agomuo (1993) secretary is  a person employed by another person, society or corporation for the purpose of conducting correspondence, keeping business records and transacting other business. He acts as an aide and the close assistant to the boss. He is the vehicle through which his boss or organization’s actions are conveyed to the public in readable and discernable form.
        A secretary is therefore a person overseeing business confidentially, usually for powerful individuals. A secretary can also be seen as a person, whose work consists of supporting management, including executives using a variety of project management, communication and organizational skills. These functions may be entirely carried out to assist one other employee or may be for the benefit of more than one.
        In other hand, a secretary is an officers of an organization who deals with correspondence admits new members and organizes  official meetings and events. According to Merrian Webster secretarial Handbook (1993) the administrative expansion of the secretaries function is reflected in the definition of a secretary provided by professional secretaries international. A secretary was defined as an executive assistant who demonstrates the ability to assume responsibility without direct supervision who exercises imitative and judgment and who makes decisions within the scope of assigned authority. From the definition the real secretary is an assistant to the executive. A secretary as a result of training process mastery of office skills, discharges his duties unsupervised and displays initiative resulting from a good knowledge of his organization.
        Whitehead (1977) in Elendu (2001) observed that “behind every successful executive, there is a first class private secretary who acts as an alter ego or other self”. For this reason, secretaries should possess some qualities and skills to enable them act as alter ego to their executives. These requirements include: business knowledge, secretarial skills, language skills and so on. The duties of secretaries have contributed to the growth and fast changing of the organizations. The quality of secretaries in this modern era has made it easy to meet social, political, economic and educational needs of the society, Onwuka (2005).