THURSDAY COLUMN BY SAFIYA ADAMU
yandokye@gmail.com
Policies are sets of intended actions aimed at achieving a common good either for the public or for a corporate body. The general intention is to achieve a higher or better situation than whatever the present happens to be. So government and its functionaries are responsible for making policies aimed at achieving the common good and improving the general well being. It is a process that requires deep thinking, serious research and analysis; it calls for deep intellectual engagements with the process, public and stakeholders as well as deployment of analytic skills. Without any doubt policymaking and implementation are vital tools in the strategic kit for a people’s growth and development.
The big question then is why do policies in Nigeria seem to fall flat? It had not always be like this, definitely at some point in time policies did work and when we say policies worked it simply means that goals and objectives were achieved, and that results were glaringly evident.
When for example General Gowon (Rtd) was head of state education and human capital development within the realm of a well united and integrated society were a priority and he set about pursuing that with a strategy that resulted in the establishment of more unity schools generally referred to as federal government colleges. The result is a whole load of first class people from different walks of life with strong social affiliations across every nook and corner of this country. More so that quite a number have gone on to set records and become stars or gurus in their chosen fields; CBN governors and deputy governors, some of the best democratically elected governors in this Republic like Donald Duke and Makarfi. In every sector there are products of these schools that have excelled at home here in Nigeria and abroad.
Gowon’s education policy is without doubt Nigeria’s boldest, greatest effort ever at human capital development; it is also the very first discernable effort at gender education and development. Yes! While the rest of the world was following a stereotype system the Gowon administration was emphasizing education for the girl-child at a faster rate than any other developing country or its peers in those times. To every mixed or co-ed secondary school in any state there was an all -girls school. The result was a larger number of girls with high quality secondary school certificates than boys. This was long before the “girl-child” education fad came on board and caught fire on the world stage.
The same administration did not discard previous policies that were brought on by Nigeria’s pioneer administration. Each region then identified what they believed they were best at and went on to enact policies that would grow their common good, enhance their peoples’ collective well being. The common policy for all the regions was that of import substitution; the Gowon led military government adopted the import substitution strategy that saw the establishment of Vehicle Assemblies across the regions. These Assemblies had time lines to graduate into full-fledged factories and manufacturing companies. Also every industry had a specific contribution to make to the development and growth of another. The Petro-chemicals were set up to provide the base material to feed the plastic and automobile industry. All of these policies had far reaching impacts on the lives of the citizens. And this is what is sadly lacking today.
As up-start nations the pioneer governments and early military governments invested in education and health with policies that aimed at attaining gradual self-sufficiency. One may ask then at what point did we begin to lose it, fall prey to policies that do not resonate with the people? It is probably a long shot in the dark. But we could try to answer it may be not adequately today, but some time soon.
Policies were back then products of deep reflections and hard choices with intent on common good. Today we have huge problem in this area and this problem goes way back probably to the 1986 decision of the then government of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (Rtd) to adopt the Bretton Woods’ institutions’ recommended Structural Adjustment Program (SAP), an economic package that was rejected by Asian countries or at best was selectively adopted in parts by those countries that were later to be qualified as the Asian Tigers. The choice to adopt in whole the entire Structural Adjustment Program package was made and taken for the country based on recommendations of institutions that were just out to experiment on their newly arrived at “research” or “studies” on developing economies.
Today’s policies appear to lack in deep reflections, in-depth analysis and little stakeholders’ contributions. Importantly the policies seem to come on board with no corresponding delivery strategy. This is one of major reasons why these policies do not get the necessary buy-in that would make them impactful. When policies fail to impact they simply create barriers to delivery of services. Consequently good governance is threatened and the administration is no longer fully together. It also suggests that commitment to the nation is light on the scale just as intellect is low in the offing. The result is what we see today and it is what keeps us awake.
