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Public Administration Reform And Strategic Plan For Nigeria By Otive Igbuzor, PhD
Executive Director, African Centre for Leadership, Strategy & Development (Centre LSD) INTRODUCTION Nigeria is going through interesting times. With the election of President Muhammadu Buhari and assumption of office in May, 2015, the discourse and expectations in governance has changed completely. Everything now revolves around the expectation and operationalization of the concept of change especially as the governing party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) campaigned on the banner of change. CHANGE AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REFORM One area where the expectation of this change is pivotal and will be most visible is in Public Administration. This is because it is through Public Administration that government can manage its activities effectively and efficiently and deliver services to citizens. But in Nigeria, there are huge challenges with public administration. The cost of governance is very high with the federal government spending over 70 percent of its total budget on recurrent expenditure. There are huge challenges of policy planning and co-ordination. The structures and systems in the public sector are not delivering services efficiently and effectively to the citizens of Nigeria. There is a huge capacity gap in the public sector and the ministries, department and agencies are not working optimally. The budgetary process is not delivering the required outcome. There is therefore the need for change and Public Administration Reform. Indeed, the need for Public Administration Reform is widespread across the world such that the United Nations Development Project (UNDP) supports 380 projects in 112 countries covering various aspects of Public Administration Reform. CHANGE AND STRATEGIC PLAN Strategic Plan is very important in an era of change. Repositioning and change is imperative in a nation when there is the need to improve performance; clarify the path to development and get the bigger picture that the change is directed. Governments have great roles to play in developing strategic plans to accelerate the development process of nations. In Nigeria, it has been documented that right from the colonial period, strategic development planning was viewed as a major strategy for achieving economic development and social progress, particularly, in the spheres of socio-economic infrastructures, industralisation, modernization, high rates of economic growth, poverty reduction, and significant improvements in living standards.[i] Three plans featured in the pre-independence era for the periods 1946-1956, 1951-1955 and 1955-1962. Over the 1962-1995 period, three major phases in the planning experience emerged, namely, the fixed medium-term planning phase (1962-1985), policy oriented planning (1986-1988), and three year rolling plan phase (1990 till date). [ii] Scholars have pointed out that the golden period of planning on the African continent, 1960s and 1970s, could not be sustained from the 1980s because of two major factors: failure of development planning to meet the high expectations of rapid growth and development; and the resurgence of liberalism and the implementation of short-term stabilization and structural adjustment programmes which are predicated on liberalization and deregulation. Meanwhile, these programmes that substituted for national development plans are counter plans which have failed to solve Africa’s myriad of economic problems.[iii] This is why some scholars have referred to the 1980s and 1990s as the “lost development decades” for Africa.[iv] The challenge is that since return to civil rule in 1999, there has been a lot of sporadic and adhoc planning without adherence to long term planning. The National Economic Empowerment and National Development Strategy (NEEDS) and the Seven Point Agenda was abandoned after a few years. It is worse at the sub-national levels. Between 2004 and 2007, all the states developed the State Economic Empowerment and Development Strategies (SEEDS). But since 2007, most state governments do not have overarching development strategies. In addition, there is no systematic planning framework for the country that ensures adequate data and research, good information system, monitoring and evaluation and tracking of results. The end result is abandonment of projects, poor plan implementation and poor service delivery. It is therefore not surprising that the mantra of change resonated with Nigerians during the 2015 general elections. On May 2015, a new government was elected in Nigeria under the platform of a new party, an amalgam of four opposition parties-the All Progressives Congress (APC). The APC campaigned to bring about change in Nigeria. The party states clearly that its mission is to construct and institute a progressive state anchored on social democracy where the welfare and security of the citizenry is paramount. Before the election of the APC, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was in power for sixteen years. There are many lessons to learn from the failure of the PDP regime which led to the victory of APC. These lessons should be taken into cognisance by the APC from the beginning. The first is that the development of a country is a complex issue and is much more than a rendition of activities and projects of Ministry, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). There is also the need to focus on the big issues of political, social and cultural change. Secondly, the voice of the people is important. For instance, the majority of the people cannot be arguing that corruption is a major problem and the political leadership is insisting that corruption is not a problem. Thirdly, government must learn to put the people at the centre of development. The Nigerian economy has grown. The economic growth rate is high but poverty is increasing at the same time. In the last few months, for the first time in a decade, the economic growth rate is declining. There is the need for policy intervention to deal with this. In addition, any party that operates and portrays itself for the sole purpose of patronage is digging its own grave. According to the former chairman of the ruling People’s Democratic Party, Alh. Bamamga Tukur “PDP is all about patronage. We are going to dole out patronage to all our members who remain in the party….Let me inform you. We are going to give patronage to all our members who have contested elections and lost. There is enough in the party to go around everyone. There is no need to leave the party.” Political organising need to be a continuous process involving political education of party leaders and members. The think tank of the party is very important here. Political party should focus on provision of services to the people. Furthermore, lack of engagement with critical stakeholders of the society is political suicide. There is the need to engage with critical sectors such as civil society, labour and the private sector. Moreover, poor co-ordination of government activities and poor monitoring and evaluation can lead to failure of a government. The APC has come to power to implement a change agenda. Nigerians are anxiously waiting for that change. It is necessary to carefully craft the change agenda in the four key areas of economy, politics, social and technological in a comprehensive strategic plan. The economic agenda should address the issues of structures and institutions of economic management; diversification of the economy; inclusive growth; promotion of transparency and accountability and promotion of pro-poor policies (Policies that will lead to good macroeconomic environment, improve access to financial services, improve governance and increase access of the poor to basic infrastructures and social services). The political agenda should address the building of institutions and mechanisms; review of the 1999 Constitution; institutions of horizontal accountability; reform of the Electoral system; building of democratic culture; regulation of party financing and campaign finance and reform of INEC. There should also be a social agenda because over the years the social fabric of the Nigerian society has been destroyed. A lot of people become wealthy overnight without questions about the sources of the wealth. People who embezzle public funds are rewarded by their communities with chieftaincy titles. There is brazen display of wealth in the midst of widespread poverty. The extended family system is being destroyed. The get rich quick syndrome has caught up with a great number of the population. The social agenda should focus on re-orientation on social values; re-orientation on work ethics and corporate social responsibility and investment. The technological agenda should focus on building of technology infrastructure and use of technology to promote transparency and accountability. The only way to do this is to produce a new strategic plan for the country. The new strategic plan should incorporate the Sustainable Development Goals (SDN). It will also be a process to engage Nigerians in the change process. There is also the need to train the elected party officials on party philosophy and programmes. In addition, the regime must have an immediate plan for co-ordination among the three tiers of government and amongst the government agencies. In the past, some form of co-ordination only took place in the economic sector. There is the need to divide the whole governance structures into four co-ordinating units: Finance and Economy; Social Services; Infrastructure, Science and Technology and Governance. Luckily, the public service has already been divided along those four lines. Finance and Economy will encompass Finance, Industry, Trade and Investment, Budget Office, Office of Accountant General, Office of Auditor General. Social services will include Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, Education, Health, Sports, Women Affairs and Social Development, Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs, Police, Youth. Infrastructure, Science and Technology will be made up of Communication, Science and Technology, Environment, Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Power, Water, Transport, Niger Delta, Petroleum and Agriculture. Governance will include the State House, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Head of Service (HOS), Defence, Foreign Affairs, Information, Interior, Justice, Labour and Productivity. The development of a strategic plan for the country will serve a lot of useful purposes. It will help to craft a clear vision and mission for the new administration. The process should be participatory so that it will ensure ownership of the strategy by citizens of the country. The strategy should integrate the nation’s major goals, policies and action into a cohesive whole. It will help to marshal and allocate the country’s resources and create a sense of politics, purpose and priorities. In addition, it will also help the country to define the best future for its citizens and provide the strategic direction to reach that future. Furthermore, it will provide a guidance on what needs to be done to change and reposition the country. Finally, it will provide a monitoring and evaluation framework for measurement of performance. CONCLUSION As Ministers are screened and approved by Senate, it is important to immediately start the process of formulating a strategic plan for the country that will incorporate comprehensive Public Administration Reform. In this regard, it is important for the government to sequence its actions. Part of the reasons why there is a lot of opposition to the ministerial nominees is the timing. It is probable that if this same list of nominees was released a week after inauguration, it would have been hailed by Nigerians. The response to the list was influenced by three main factors. First, the period of wait afforded political gladiators a lot of opportunity to lobby for their candidates. In the process, efforts were made to discredit other possible candidates. Secondly, the narratives before the announcement gave the impression that the list will contain names completely different from those who we already know. Thirdly, the waiting game until the very last day of September, 2015 reached an anti-climax. The fact that the list did not get to the Senate before the close of business did not help matters. Going forward, the government of President Muhammadu Buhari must learn to sequence its actions in a strategic manner. For instance, it should not wait till the end of screening before releasing the names of Special Advisers to the President and the Economic Team. The government should not any longer before outlining the process of development of Strategic Plan for the country. It should not wait any longer before giving an indication of how the economic team will look like. Finally, government should not wait any longer before giving an outline of the comprehensive Public Administration Reform that the government will embark upon. Nigerians desire change. Nigerians voted for change. The PMB administration has promised change. It is now time to concretise the change in a national strategic plan and comprehensive reform of Public Administration and other institutions in Nigeria.
Dr. Otive Igbuzor is a Pharmacist, Human Rights Activist, Policy Analyst, Development Expert and Strategist. He holds a doctorate degree in Public Administration.
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