Public Policies/Programmes and National Development in Nigeria (original) (raw)
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Public Policy Implementation and National Development in Nigeria
Dynamics of Public Administration. A Publication of Department of Public Administration, Lucknow University, India. , 2022
The paper examined the effects of Public Policy Implementation on National Development in Nigeria. Public policy implementation is a very important stage in the public policy process. This is because the nature of implementation determines whether public policy will achieve its intended goals or not. This is not to say that apart from implementation other factors such as corruption, policy abandonment or discontinuity among others do not affect public policy one way or the other. But as far as this paper is concerned much emphasis is laid on the issue of public policy implementation. This paper adopted the secondary method of data collection and the data gathered were analyzed with the use of historical and descriptive methods. The paper adopted the political systems theory as a theoretical framework. The paper found out that many policies in Nigeria were not able to contribute meaningfully to national development because of poor implementation of such policies. Against this backdrop, the paper recommended amongst other things that the government should try as much as possible to make those policies it has the capacity to implement to avoid wastage of the Nation's resources with its attendant consequences on national development.
Challenges of Public Policy Making and Execution in Nigeria
Public policy formulation and execution are central to any country's rate of development. In Nigeria, the problem is essentially of execution and continuity. Successive governments abandon inherited public policies and initiate theirs that their own successors equally abandon, thus leaving a trail of abandoned policies and their relevant projects. There is a big disconnect between the policy makers and those for whom the policies are made, resulting in lack of ownership and acceptance of the policies by the people. The result is a near directionless growth. A survey approach was employed while highlighting the policy actors and the public policy process in Nigeria. Some of the factors militating against effective policy making and execution in Nigeria were found to include political rascality, ethnicity, lack of need assessments, corruption, too many points of agenda, inability to properly identify problems, lack of continuity, lack of political will, inadequate resources, white elephant or unrealistic policy goals, among many others. The consequences of poor public policy formulation ad execution were equally highlighted. This paper therefore, x-rays the causes of the malaise and attempts proffering solutions that will help stem the tide. It, therefore, concluded that for the country to get its development drive right it must pay more attention to receiving inputs from all the policy making actors in and outside government as well as encourage continuity regarding good policies, regardless of tenure of administrations. This is more so given the fact that Nigeria is still struggling with rudimentary development in all facets, even after about sixty years of political independence from her colonial masters, Britain.
The nature, stability and development of any government organized country is a phenomenon that is dependent on public policy. This in all ramifications proves the paramount relevance of public policy planning, making, implementation and analysis in efficiency and effectiveness of government. The existence of public policy practice however, is not devoid of challenges as it poses a fundamental question of how best to model public policy so as to create the most efficient and effective government. Numerous previous literatures had attempted to do justice to this question; nonetheless, little or no attention has been given to basic components of this question which are 'how to aggregate diverse public interest into a public policy, and how to tackle the on-paper-non-practice syndrome of established public policies'. This paper attempts to fill this gap in literature by examining these public policy questions and establishing a panacea for them. A retrospective study of the Nigerian public policy practice was undertaken.
The Interface of Public Policy in Nigeria and its Upshot on the Nigerian Economy
Global Journal of Human-Social Science: E economics, 2019
The term public policy is often confused by people who could not understand what it is. The public policy means the mixture of legislation as a result of government politically prioritized ideas with that broad policy directive statements directed at civil service and public agencies periodically to enhance adequate socioeconomic and market stability aimed at productivity. The lives of individuals and that of business organizations are affected every day by policies instituted by governments, political organizations, social organizations, labour groups, educational institutions, labour groups, service organizations, communities and even religious organizations such as churches. The pronouncements or policies of all these institutions affect man's life in every ramification, especially the economic lives of people. The research question is how public policy comes to the fore, and what is its interface? The research goes on to explain what it is. Having explained public policy, we proceed to discuss the emergence of public policy in Nigeria and its interface. Abstract-The term public policy is often confused by people who could not understand what it is. The public policy means the mixture of legislation as a result of government politically prioritized ideas with that broad policy directive statements directed at civil service and public agencies periodically to enhance adequate socioeconomic and market stability aimed at productivity. The lives of individuals and that of business organizations are affected every day by policies instituted by governments, political organizations, social organizations, labour groups, educational institutions, labour groups, service organizations, communities and even religious organizations such as churches. The pronouncements or policies of all these institutions affect man's life in every ramification, especially the economic lives of people. The research question is how public policy comes to the fore, and what is its interface? The research goes on to explain what it is. Having explained public policy, we proceed to discuss the emergence of public policy in Nigeria and its interface. The boundary of public policy seems so wide that it touches all the facets of human activities, be it social, economic, behavioural, financial, etc.
PUBLIC POLICY AS AN INSTRUMENT OF DEVELOPMENT: A CASE STUDY OF LAGOS STATE
2020
Public policy is a familiar concept used on a daily basis by virtually everybody; but owing to the diversity of circumstances in which the term is applied, coupled with the fact that human beings by nature vary in their perceptions of things, there is a variety of meanings attached to the concept. Nonetheless, there is still a common reference point by all users of the concept from various disciplines (Adesopo, 2018). It is used mainly in reference to what government does in order to meet the yearnings and aspirations of the citizenry. This could be in the form of actions taken in the course of distributing, regulating and redistributing resources in the society (Abah, 2010). However, these actions do not necessarily have to emanate exclusively from the government, as the citizenry can initiate them as well. Nevertheless, these people’s initiatives would have to be acted upon by the government before such actions could appropriately be labeled as public policy (Egeran, 2019). The concept therefore is central to governments, private organizations and individuals. Government commits much time, energy and resources to the development of policies. Some even take years to make, but once made, they are so emphasized as the big guiding stick in related areas of activity. Officials in both public and private organizations spend much time in enunciating policies and explaining how actions fit into existing policies Policy as an instrument of government affects the lives of each person in a state, as it occupies a key position in the success of every administration, whether public, private or not-for-profit making organization. Public policies are policies and programmes meant to handle particular social problems emanating from the environment (political system) (Cochran, 2015). Public policy deals with present and future problems of a society and involves all legitimate means of achieving stated goals and objectives of government, rendering social services to the community by a governmental agency or ministerial department. In a developing country like Nigeria, public policy is very critical since it is the spring-board for channeling development. Public policy is pivotal to translating government intentions to practical actions (Ezeani, 2006). This usually involves huge amounts of resources and the need for them to address intended use or issues can never be over-emphasized. However, in Nigeria, the problem is not policy formulation but that of diligent execution of the policies. More often than not public policies are easily made but the issue of proper implementation remains a great question to be answered in the country (Makinde, 2015). However, this study sets out to assess public policy as an instrument of development in Lagos state.
2014
Achieving the development agenda is a challenge faced by developing and developed countries. This requires a country to successfully balance its economic growth and social development through distinctive policy-making process. This paper focuses on how Nigeria can achieve its development agenda speedily based on comparison with Ghana. Nigeria is a resource rich country, with excellent economic growth potentials. Based on anecdotal evidence, its rebased gross domestic product (GDP) estimates places it as the largest economy in Africa and 26th largest economy in the world. However, its development record does not match this statistics. It is a low-middle income economy. The country is in conflict, plagued with political instability, high unemployment rates, extreme poverty and corruption. Whilst public services and infrastructure are poor, the inequality gap keeps widening and development progress remains very slow. All of the above deter it from achieving speedily its developmental agenda. Ghana is also not void of some of these issues, however in the Western African region it is a benchmark because of its commendable political progress and economic growth records so far. This makes it an appropriate case study. This paper would be informed by academic and media discourses. It is structured into the following five sections. The first section identifies, describes and analyses demographic, social and development indicators as well as politics and corruption in both countries. Discussions on politics in both countries would be centered on its organization, who is in power and what gets delivered to its citizens. Whilst discussion on corruption would be centered on the form it takes in both countries. The divergence and convergence of both countries from the indicators and findings on politics and corruption identified is then discussed in the second section. This highlights Ghana’s positive indicators and how they are tied to its political progress. This forms a basis for elaborating in the third section Nigeria’s weak institutions, weak political and governance system and a poor enabling environment for private business progress as the main factors deterring Nigeria from achieving its development agenda. Consequently, five recommendations – drivers of developmental change for Nigeria are made based on Ghana’s experience in the fourth section. The fifth section concludes this paper.
The Economic Implications of National Development Plans: The Nigerian Experience (1946-2013)
Developing Country Studies, 2014
This paper reviews the National Development Plans in Nigeria from the period of inception in 1946 to the recent period. At the course of the review, the capital expenditure profile at each period of development plan was examined to weigh the cost-benefit effect-which is the main objective of this research. Being an ex-post-facto research, the data were sourced secondarily and findings include that the National Development Plan were abandoned and in each period of the other development plans, along with their corresponding capital expenditure and allocation. Findings also reveal that no single period of the development plan recorded a fully implemented laid down objectives due to lack of implementable plan. Equally, the research finds that some factors causing failures in the plans include the leaders' inability to transform planned policies to realities, diversion from original focus, and poor budgetary allocation. Conclusively, with the 2013 National Implementation Plan (NIP) instituted recently, there is hope of seeing a planned and totally executed development plan soonest otherwise the Vision 20:2020 through which Nigeria aims at becoming one of the world's leading economies come 2020 is just but a mirage.
Dynamics of Government Policies in Nigeria's Economic Development (1960-1979)
The 16-page academic paper in learned offshore journal discussed government policies on the development of the Nigeria's modern economy. It identified the role of the colonial rule in creation of the structure of Nigerian economy. It also looked at the atmosphere of political development and public policies between 1960 and 1979 in building a sustainable economy. It made a view lens of economic development from a political angle and identified the weaknesses in the economic structure. The publication is on Page 21-36, Vol. 3, No. 11, 2012 of the IISTE Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development. ISSN 2222-1700 (Paper), ISSN 2222-2855 (online).
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN NIGERIAN NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT: NIGERIA STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT PLAN
The recent Nigerian development plan is the perspective plan called the National Vision 20:2020 which is designed as the most dependable tool for national growth and advancement of Nigeria. A country's ability to rapidly grow, largely depends on the development plan it has adopted; the strategy for implementing the development plan; and the timely evaluation of the strategy for re-strategizing for re-implementation process and sustainable impactful return from the set objectives in the interest of the citizens of the country. Nigeria for the past 67 years has formulated different types of plan to date. Some of the plans include fixed term plan, medium term plan, rolling plan, policy plan, and perspective plan. Considering the series of plans that have been implemented and the one currently running, Nigeria still faces a problem of steering the attainment of the set forecast and objectives of the development plan in different states in Nigeria. This paper adopts secondary sources of information to discuss the following: The Nigeria development plan in the past, major limitations of the past developmental plan, today's strategic development plan, strategic action for achieving strategic thinking; and key approaches to achieve the best results from strategic thinking.
National development in Nigeria: Issues, challenges and prospects
Development is critical and essential to the sustenance and growth of any nation. A country is classified as developed when is able to provide qualitative life for her citizenry. Nigeria in the last fifty years has been battling with the problems of development in spite of huge human, material and natural resources in her possession. The paper discussed the problems affecting national development as well as strategies for achieving sustainable development in Nigeria. The paper adopted secondary data as sources of information. The paper concluded that faithful implementation of development plan, commitment on the part of the leaders and absence of corruption are required for the achievement of sustainable development in Nigeria.