The Nextier SPD has conveyed a team of experts on public governance to tackle what they described as ‘failing governance’ in Nigeria and brainstorm ways to improve service delivery for the good of Nigerians.
Patrick Okigbo, founding partner, Nextier noted that the Nigerian public service delivery is fraught with many challenges. He said a research conducted by Nextier in 2020 found that corruption, poor design and planning are some of the key reasons why government, and its policies and programmes fail.
Okigbo said this at the discourse on “Getting Big Things done”, organized with the support of Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) in Abuja.
He noted that government, in an attempt to improve service delivery have engaged the services of cross-over professionals, i.e. those who transitioned from the private sector and civil society organisations to work in the public service.
He however noted that these COPs do not understand how the public service works and therefore experience difficulties in executing policies and projects.
“The purpose of this discourse is to improve the efficiency of COPs”, he said.
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Catherine Angai, Program Coordinator, OSIWA on her part said the biggest challenge facing the West Africa region is poor governance, which is exacerbated by rapid urbanization and population explosion.
“The system is not working as effectively or efficiently as it should, the system is failing. This has a direct impact on one of the fundamental obligations of Government – the delivery of public goods. What again is the benefit of democracy if there is no good governance?
“Poor governance according to our context analysis is the root cause of extractive and abusive political, social and economic systems which in turn frustrates key areas OSIWA is particularly interested in 0 justice sector reforms, inclusive economic growth, citizens access to basic public services, such as health and education. Indeed, poor governance compromises democratic institutions and creates the conditions that are conducive for insecurity and fragility.
“That is why we have turned to those we have termed cross-over professionals. Professionals who transitioned from the private sector and civil society organisations to work in the public service. Who have the benefits of both worlds. Who navigated the often murky waters of the bureaucracy and have developed key insight, deep experience and critical knowledge that we believe needs to be harnessed.”
Osita Chidoka, a former minister of aviation, said the system of recruitment in Nigeria is the worst form of corruption in the country.
“We have a structural problem with recruitment, lack of transparency and corruption in recruitment, this is the worst corruption in Nigeria. We have police officers who can’t deliver policing, soldiers who can’t deliver security, judges who can’t deliver justice and civil servants who can’t deliver public goods”.
He also decried that the standard of recruiting public officials have declined and consequently those get recruited fail to deliver on their mandate.
