Public policy failures in Nigeria: cases, causes and remedies

Incidence of Public policy failures have been attributed by commentators on the Nigeria's political plane as a causative factor to lack of development in the country. Concerned by this phenomenon, we set out to investigate such failures and their causes. Our strategy was to examine sectoral policies using six identified sectors viz: Agriculture and Food; Education; Health; Housing; Power and Security. Among the identified causes of policy failures in these sectors are non-involvement of all stakeholders at the formulation and implementation stages of the policies, lack of political will to implement formulated policies; unnecessary political interferences, termination of subsisting policies/programmes by successive governments etc. Strategies proposed for ameliorating the situation include: every stakeholder as it affects policies in various sectors must be involved from formulation to the implementation stages; evolving the political will to implement formulated policies; continuity in implementation of viable polices irrespective of leadership changes; further strengthening and effective utilization of the Policy Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Agency which is located in the Presidency in its mandate of providing feedback to government on the progress or otherwise of policy performances in Nigeria.