THE RELEVANCE OF DEVELOPMENT PLANS TO NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (A CASE OF NIGERIA (original) (raw)
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NIGERIA'S DEVELOPMENT PLANNING (II)
Over the years, the quest to better the lots of Nigerians have been problematique, owing to the fact that the ability to bridge the gap between our now and the future rests on a well designed development plan designed by the government. Obviously, there are good policy documents in Nigeria, but the implementation has always been contentious. As a country, Nigeria is replete with issues that call for development planning or else the future will remain bleak and uncertain as it has always appeared. As students and future development planners we need to ask ourselves; what has been happening to unemployment, illiteracy, environmental degradation, security challenges like Boko Haram, Niger Delta Avengers, killer-herdsmen, uncontrolled population growth, poor agricultural policies, poor infrastructural development, poor industrial policies and poor economic policies birthing low Gross National Product (GNP), Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and low Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) of our local currency. Most of the problems we encounter today are the results of our inability to plan. The experience of the oil boom in the 1970s and the 1980s introduced the first set of 'squandermanias’ and corrupt leaders whose destructive impacts have lasted till date. They never planned for the future of the unborn Nigerians and that is why we are still tagged an underdeveloped nation.
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Planning is one of the basic principles of administration and about the most critical of its functions since it permeates all others. Development planning therefore becomes a necessary tool used by many governments and organizations to set their visions, missions, goals, and effective means of realizing development through effective direction and control. Development planning has been a consistent phenomenon in Nigerian administration since 1946. Experts, (e.g. Obikeze and Obi 2004; Okojie 2002) however, argue that it has not been as successful as expected. Truly, Nigeria remains an underdeveloped nation occupying a low position among the poorest countries of the world in spite of her tremendous natural and human resources endowment. This points to a distorted planning regime and implies two things: either the correct plan had not always been made or correct plans made were not effectively implemented. Both options seem to be true of Nigeria. As Obikeze and Obi (2004:) noted, "a review of the various plan (sic) clearly shows that, the country is still very far from where it was envisaged it will be today. This is simply as a result of either faulty
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.
Nigeria returned to democratic rule in 1999 with the enthusiasm to chat new political and socioeconomic dispensation. The introduction of National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) as a medium term planning strategy was a blueprint for new order. It contains all the envisaged policies and programmes of the federal government for the period 2003-2007 and far beyond, and serves as the fountain of the much-touted Obasanjo’s reforms. NEEDS is not only a macro-economic plan document, but also a comprehensive vision, goals and principles of a new Nigeria that would be made possible through four key policies of wealth creation, employment generation, poverty eradication and value reorientation. This paper is a reflection on NEEDS. Using historical and content analysis methods, the paper explores common indices of development planning in the country. It reveals that NEEDS is not different from previous development plans in Nigeria, despite the claims to the contrary. While claiming to be a home-grown plan, it is very much in line with the wishes of the international agents of developed capitalist economies; there is lack of commitment of the leadership in pursing plan objectives; corruption is still rife and priority in selecting plan projects is still poor. The paper recommends among others, the need for committed leadership, continuity with NEEDS II document, drawing adequate scale of preference in choosing policies and programmes, and determined efforts to break from the crutches of neo imperialist and neo colonial tendencies of the developed countries.
Assessing Development Plans in Nigeria
The socio-economic development of any society is conspicuously linked to development planning embarked upon by the government. This situation is peculiar to all developed societies and underdeveloped society to which Nigeria belongs. Nigeria has over the years embarked on various national and rolling development plans. In place, have been four national development plans and rolling plans including development policies such as Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), Vision 2010, National Economic Empowerment Development Strategies (NEEDS) and currently Vision 2020. These programmes were all initiated to facilitate economic, social, political and technological growth all geared towards improving the living conditions of Nigerians.
EVALUATION OF NIGERIA PLANNING EXPERIENCE FROM COLONIAL TO PRE- COLONIAL PLANS (1962 – TO DATE
INTRODUCTION Every responsible government is expected to draw comprehensive plans periodically through which the welfare of citizens can be enhanced socially, economically and politically among others. In developed countries, the goal of such plans could be to facilitate growth in the above mentioned spheres of life, while in developing countries; the plans are targeted at economic development. Contemporary studies/findings seem to be broadening the meaning of the concepts of growth and development or doing a total overhaul and redefinition of these concepts. The definition of development tends to be moving away from economic indicators (of increase in GDP, GNP, per capita income and others) to non-economic indices such as the democratic imperatives of political governance and social indicators (Jhingan, 2007:5-12). This also explains why Sen (1999) visualized development from the ends and means of freedoms. Sen conceives freedom as a primary end and principal means of development. This, he referred to as the constitutive and instrumental roles of freedom. The next section discusses the concept and rationale for development planning in developing countries with Nigeria as the focus.
Institutionalizing Development Planning in Nigeria: Context, Prospects and Policy Challenges
Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development, 2014
Sustainable economic growth and development is strongly linked to defining developmental needs and deploying resources towards solving same using the instrumentality of national development plans framework especially in a developing economy such ours that is additionally operating a federal fiscal system. The main objective of the research is to review previous planning experience of Nigeria relative to other developing countries and define key initiatives required for institutionalizing development planning model in Nigeria. In the process, five key benefits of planning have been identified; aligning sectoral needs with resource availability, implementing a mutually supporting sectoral development strategy, value for money in public expenditure spent, result based programme budgeting and strengthened fiscal federalism. Pursuant to the need for Nigeria to achieve the goals and objectives encapsulated in the Vision 20:2020 Economic Transformation Blueprint, specific legal, institutional and policy initiatives are required. However, strong and committed political leadership, sustained plan funding and development of a results based national monitoring and evaluation framework are required for a successful reverting to national development planning framework after a 27 years break.