Nigeria needs to have a strong monitoring and evaluation system to check how people in leadership positions are working towards delivering their promises to the people.
“We need to get to a point where we do politics of policies that deliver results. Therefore, within the political parties themselves, they should have the internal mechanism to evaluate their performance if they are working towards the promises they made or not,” Laoye Jayeola, CEO, Nigeria Economic Summit Group said at the Lagos Business School (LBS) Public Sector Seminar themed ‘Nigeria in Challenging Times; Imperatives for a Cohesive National Development Agenda Confirmation,’ held virtually on Monday.
According to Jayeola, those in leadership now have to face the truth and be sincere to the people on the challenges the country is facing.
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At the moment, Nigeria’s economy is facing challenging times such as the result of insecurity, unemployment, inflation, poverty, hunger, inequality, the proliferation of ethnic militia and separatist agitations.
According to Jayeola, that is why it is important to know the imperatives for a cohesive national development agenda.
Frank Nweke II, senior visiting fellow, LBS, noted that if people in power feel that anything goes and that they will not be challenged and held accountable, we will continue to have challenges.
“We must begin to take responsibility for the choices we make and commit not to do the wrong things for personal interest while undermining national interest,” Nweke said.
Public policies are part of the roads governments use in the attainment of many goals thereby achieving the much needed progress and advancement of their citizens in particular, and communities, towns, and countries in general.
But in Africa’s biggest economy, public policies are either meant to fail from the beginning or midway due to corruption, poor funding of policies, lack of continuity in government policies, lack of political will, inadequate human and material resources, etc.
“If we are going to have a cohesive national agenda then there must be some form that will act like glue to hold us together, there must be some strength that we can emphasize,” Sarah Alade, special adviser to the President on Finance and the Economy, said.
“One important thing that we must be able to do is policy continuity, even when you start on the right path, when you have a change in administration, it is a stopping goal. So, once we ensure continuity in our policies, you can then look at those things you can do, put in place” Alade further said.
Since 1976, many public policies articulated by past Nigerian governments have not lived up to their expectations such as Operation Feed the Nation (OFN), Green Revolution, Vision 2010, etc.
Babagana Umaru Zulum, governor of Borno State, believes that in order for us to build strong institutions, we need to prioritise national interest and incorporate patriotism; develop some level of individual’s contentment.
