It is mostly considered in Nigeria that government projects fail and are not able to deliver the intended goals for which they are set up. These challenges having been making Nigeria to lose billions of dollars yearly and something urgent needs to be done about it.
Therefore, it is important for government institutions to work towards closing these gaps as a strategy to grow the nation’s economy as well as encourage more investors to partner with government at all levels to increase business and employment opportunities.
Although, Nigeria has been enjoying a smooth democratic ride since 1999, projects at the three tiers of government are still falling short in the area of accountability on project delivery and outcomes.
Nowadays, developed nations are devising better strategies and also adopting best practices to improve project delivery as well as ensure better outcomes to solve social needs and add more value to their economy and society.
Nigeria in the past and present has invested billions of dollars in different projects to develop the economy and infrastructure to improve the living conditions of Nigerians. However, it is discouraging to see that very little has been achieved despite all efforts made by different administrations. Interestingly most government projects in the past have failed and some are on the verge of failing due to the inability of leaders at helm of affairs to unlearn and learn from past project failures.
Project failures occur mostly due to government institutions not engaging in pre-project activities; not having clear-cut business cases on why projects should be embarked upon, misalignment between project and strategic objectives as well as following through project processes from initiation through planning, execution, control and closure.
An example of major government project that failed in the past is the CCTV project which was part of the N76 billion National Public Security Communications Systems Project (NPSCSP) conceptualised by the President Umaru Yar’Adua administration. It was to provide a multimedia communication system for the police and other security agencies in the country to fight off growing criminal activities in the country. Based on this project functional and delivery evaluation, the project is considered as a failure because of its inability to meet business needs and demands for which it was set up.
Also, considered to be a failure is the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) project where irrespective of the N832.93 billion the Budget Office, Ministry of Finance and National Planning reported they released to the agency from 2001 -2020 across the nine Niger Delta states, very little infrastructural and developmental progress has been achieved in the region.
Most of NDDC projects were mainly road construction, provision of water and electricity, construction and rehabilitation of hospitals and school construction, sea embankment, dredging of rivers and construction of bridges where all have been found to be mostly in abandoned states or poorly done when compared to the amount of funds budgeted for them.
Another good example of government project failure was the inability of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to meet the structured schedule for the distribution of the Permanent Voters Cards (PVC) in Nigeria, which was the third phase of distribution of PVC.
Thirteen states of the 36 states were designed to be involved in the exercise, which began on Friday, 7th November and ended on Sunday, 9th November 2014. The Lagos state government had earlier declared public holiday for this exercise, yet the commission did not work on the day the people were eased from work, an absolute demonstration of another project failure due to process inefficiency in the area of planning.
Another very important project in Nigeria that is currently sliding towards failure is the National Identification Number project which has both economic and social importance to the growth of Nigeria and its economy. The success of the project is being threatened by government indifference ,citizens lack of trust in government, inefficiency in the technology system deployed for the project ,endemic corruption in the system to mention but a few.
There are hundreds of government projects that have failed that can be traced to management integrity issue, which are partly responsible for most of the government project failures in Nigeria. Findings have shown in the past that only a handful of civil servants or stakeholders can actually identify the goals and strategy of projects. This also further highlight the importance of management strategy in government institutions as this would help department employees and stakeholders to build stronger alignment with government’s objectives and strategy.
Another major challenge affecting maximum output in achieving government project goals in Nigeria is the inability of managers and teams to collaborate to determine goals for each employee and this affects knowledge of responsibilities. In Nigeria, most government institutions are over staffed as a result of cronyism -where some politicians reciprocate back to their affiliates and foot soldiers who helped them win elections and without bothering to know how many job or business opportunities were created in such institutions. This gives rise to redundancy and conflicts where roles are not clearly assigned.
In some other cases, these employees are not qualified for the positions occupied, do not have any idea of the organisation goals and do not have clear-cut ideas how to achieve them. Also, the importance of Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Bound goals are very important for government employees to identify where to focus efforts to effectively achieve targeted goals and results that would help the organisation maximize outputs.
In addition, lack of focus on creativity and excellence in institutions also affect project outcomes. Creativity and excellence play a crucial role in the success of any project whether public or private and so continuous improvement of key performance indicators are very important project, where team players are not victimised, allowed to take calculated risks and if mistakes are made it is treated as part of the learning process.
Project outcomes can be improved by employing better strategies, transparency, planning, problem solving, communication, collaboration, and consideration of overall staff skills before they are hired. Planning and structuring also helps make problem solving process more successful as ineffectiveness in team structures can lead to project failures.
Problems and challenges are at the centre of what many government organisations go through daily, which are sometimes very complex and difficult to solve. Therefore, government institutions need to regularly engage qualified project managers or contractors with the right experience and knowledge.
Finally, projects objectives and key results (OKRs) are very important for project managers to succeed and these objectives should be communicated promptly and regularly at all levels of the project to facilitate the success of the projects which are inter-linked with project goals, vision and values.
