Olaopa decries poor commitment, disconnect between govt, research industry

Chairman of Federal Civil Service Commission, Prof. Tunji Olaopa, has decried the palpable poor state of policy research and the disconnect between the objectives of the research industry and the concerns of policymakers in government.

The public administrator spoke during the Sixth General Assembly and Conference of the Association of African Public Service Commission (AAPSCOMS) held in Nairobi, Kenya.

Olaopa spoke on the topic, “Defining Issues in Research and Policy Linkages in Country-level Development Management in Africa.” According to Olaopa, who emerged as the vice president of AAPSCOMS for West Africa during the event, the disconnect is evident in the incredibly low level of research spending in Africa when compared with global total contributions.

He added that the evidence validating the claim was the fact that the bulk of usable development and administrative statistics generated in Africa were funded by foreign development agencies.

“This reality explains why African states cannot design their development agenda on their own terms. It also validates the reigning theory that African policymakers do not as yet understand what development is all about,” he said.

In his recommendation, he said: “Africa needs a crop of scholars-practitioners evangelists who will push for a significant shift from common sense praxis to more rigorous scientific approaches to development management in Africa.

Olaopa referenced President Bola Tinubu’s desire to institute a government of national competence as a policy framework capable of galvanising a shift from the pervasive “know-who” nepotism to “know-how”.

He enjoined political parties to emulate practices in advanced democracies, where, for example, “the Democratic Party in the USA is technically backstopped by the Brooking Institution and the Republican by the American Enterprise Institute”.

He went further to advocate professionalism in planning and policy analysis departments, investment in future research and scenario planning and creation of special cadre in public service into which experts from other sectors of the economy and from the diaspora could be desk officers on renewable performance contracts outside of career paths in the public administration system.

He lamented that African states still focused on the hardware of development namely, how many roads, schools, hospitals, mass housing, among others, are built, in utter disregard for intangible assets that enable sustainable development, such as the quality of country’s human capital and education.

the strength of institutions, rule of law and constitutional order; the value of social capital of communities, efficient judicial system, property rights, timely and reliable statistics, reformed public service, R&D, data security and privacy, intellectual property, patents, copyright, culture of innovation, knowledge creation.

He lamented that as a result of poor attention to research, public policy researchers in Africa found their way into Western countries, where they were generously funded and appreciated.

He lamented: “Prof Stolper had published an article titled ‘Planning without Fact’ as an account of his experience working in Nigeria. His basic thesis was that Nigeria is a country that plans and manages her development programmes without the benefit of evidence-based practices, by merely shooting in the dark, in unscientific manner.”