Policy discontinuity is one of the biggest threats to Nigeria’s development, Kano State Commissioner for Planning and Budget, Suleiman Shanono, has said, warning that changes in government often lead to the abandonment of programmes and projects initiated by previous administrations.
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‎Shanono said the situation forces successive governments to “reinvent the wheel” instead of building on existing initiatives, describing discontinuity as a major threat to development at both the national and sub-national levels.
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‎”The biggest obstacle is discontinuity. Even in management and even in the public service, once you have change of government, here is a government that started something, and at the end of it, if there is a change of government, you discover that programmes, projects are abandoned,” he said.
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‎Speaking at the Nigerian Institute of Management (Chartered) 65th Anniversary Colloquium in Lagos on Wednesday, Shanono called for reforms to be institutionalised through laws and other mechanisms to ensure that institutions outlive the individuals leading them.
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‎”Instead of seeing it as individually driven, let it be seen as institutionally driven. That is to say, you build an institution, probably using laws, acts, and what have you, so that that institution will outlive individuals,” he said.
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‎He said sound management was the difference between ministries that delivered results and those that existed merely as administrative structures.
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‎Shanono said putting “a round hole in a square peg” was one of the problems affecting public administration.
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‎He also said Kano State had sought to strengthen public administration through planning, coordination, delegation, monitoring and evaluation, as well as citizen participation in the budgeting process.
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‎According to him, the state engages citizens across its emirates to determine their priorities and incorporate their needs into the budget.
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‎The need for continuity was reinforced by the Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON) representative and Head of Public Administration Department, Sena Akran, who said the challenge extended beyond formulating policies to ensuring that they produced measurable and sustained impact.
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‎She said public servants needed competencies that would enable them to monitor and evaluate policies after implementation, noting that some policies were implemented but later disappeared, making it difficult to assess their impact.
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‎”What I see is that most of the time we implement policies but we don’t monitor them, we don’t look out for the results. Policies are also implemented and in a number of years they are gone, you don’t see them again, they are no longer available, so you cannot really access the impact,” she said.
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‎She called for greater use of evidence in decision-making, saying public servants needed research and problem-solving skills to identify problems, track implementation and close the gap between policy and impact.
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‎The call for continuity and stronger accountability was also reinforced during the panel discussion, where a stakeholder said some abandoned projects had remained incomplete despite substantial public expenditure.
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‎The stakeholder cited a project in his state on which “several billions” had been spent but which was lying abandoned because of a lack of continuity. He called for stronger accountability for public officials and legislation to prevent incoming administrations from abandoning projects inherited from their predecessors.
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‎He also urged government to make greater use of research produced by Nigerian universities and research institutions, saying well-researched theses and doctoral studies with potential value for national development were often left unused.
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‎Chief Executive Officer, Elshcon Nigeria limited, Dr Emi Membere-Otaji said the public sector could learn from the private sector by strengthening recruitment, staff development, resource allocation, data management and digitalisation of government processes.
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‎He said private companies were more deliberate about recruiting suitable people, developing their capabilities and allocating resources based on expected outcomes, while government could improve efficiency by adopting similar management practices.
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‎He also advocated greater digitalisation of government processes to reduce unnecessary human contact and improve efficiency.
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‎Earlier, Chairman Blackcod Asset Management Group, Bimbo Ashiru, said Nigeria’s challenge was not a shortage of “intelligent, talented and ambitious people” but the ability to organise people, institutions and resources in ways that consistently convert talent into results.
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‎Ashiru identified corporate governance, capacity building, sustainability, and technology and optimisation as areas through which sound management could contribute to sustainable economic growth, institutional excellence and national transformation.
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‎He also stressed the importance of trust and integrity, saying businesses and investors must be able to trust institutions and the people with whom they transact.
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‎The colloquium, themed “The Role of Sound Management Practices in Driving Sustainable Economic Growth, Institutional Excellence, and National Transformation,” formed part of activities marking NIM’s 65th anniversary.
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‎The discussions centred on the need to strengthen institutions, ensure policy continuity, improve accountability and close the gap between policy implementation and impact.