THE VERY PROBLEM OF NIGERIA AND WHY SOME GOOD POLICIES FAIL HERE. Nigeria makes good policies. Our economic and national policies are are compact, coherent and well theoretically grounded as the ones formulated in other countries. The question screaming for answers is, why do our policies fail? Lets take a look at some of the policies enacted by the previous and the present government and why they failed. 1. OPERATION FEED THE NATION OFN was a good and well-conceived policy that aimed to address the challenges in the agricultural sector with a view to boosting agricultural output, increasing agricultural contribution to the foreign exchange earnings and so on. Why did it fail? Corruption. The fund earmarked for the project was diverted to the wrong channels. Some people alleged that Obasanjo used the OFN money to build his Ota farm. 2. STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT PROGRAMME SAP on paper was a great programme. It was recommended by the World Bank, formulated and implemented by the best brains in the country though with technical inputs from the Bretton Wood institutions. Why did it not fly? Corruption. The guidelines were not strictly followed, nonchalancy on the part of government officials. $12 billion oil windfall went missing. Ask IBB! The programme was starved of funds. 3. NATIONAL ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY NEEDS was formulated by Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo while serving as the Chief Economic Adviser to President Olusegun Obasanjos administration. The programme seeks to address some issues like deregulation of the oil downstream sector and the power sector, liberalizing the telecom sector, and reforming the financial sector. This gave birth to the GSM revolution, and banking sector consolidation and privatization of some comatose government enterprises. But why didnt it work properly? Corruption. The shady deals in the oil sector frustrated the petroleum-specific objectives of the policies while the ineptitude of the PHCN smeared the little achievement made by the policy. TRANSFORMATION AGENDA This is the current economic plan by being implemented by the GEJ administration. Its goals are vision 20:20:20, power stability and sufficiency, diversification of the economy, resuscitation of the energy sector and building of refineries, food security, internal and external defense and so on. Why is it not working? Corruption. PHCN was disintegrated and sold in parts to friends of GEJ in the name of privatization, the untouchable oil cabal, incompetence handling of the Boko Harams insurgency, inefficient SURE-P, missing $20 billion and many more. Corruption is the bane of development. The first step towards building a prosperous nation starts with fighting corruption. Dont vote a corruption-tolerant leader in 2015 if you wish Nigeria well.
Posted on: Wed, 22 Oct 2014 08:10:39 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015