By Seriki Adinoyi
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo yesterday identified poor implementation of policies and programmes in Nigeria as the bane of the country’s development.
Osinbajo stated this when he inaugurated the Senior Executive Course (SEC) 43 participants of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) for the 2021 session.
The vice president, who conducted the inauguration virtually, represented President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said: “Poor policy implementation is considered as the bane of development in Nigeria. The proverbial gap between policy and intentional outcome can be seen whether in delivering on campaign promises or even delivering on a well-articulated policies and programmes. For serious minded policy makers, the frustration is the same.”
He noted that NIPSS as the country’s foremost think-tank institution had engaged in some of the most difficult policy questions in different sectors of the economy, including electoral reforms, public health, poverty and human capacity, among others, adding that the time has come for the institution to move away from “think-tanks to do thanks.”
He said it was in order to address the problems that the theme for the 2021 year entitled: ‘Getting things done: Strategies for policies and programmes implementation in Nigeria’, was chosen.
In his remark, the Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong, told the SEC participants not to disappoint Nigerians who now look up to them to deliver on their mandate and provide practical and modern nitty-gritty in policy implementation needed for the country to move forward.
The acting Director-General of NIPSS, Brigadier General CFJ Udaya( rtd), said a total of 85 nominees were carefully selected from different fields, including the armed forces, police, Para-military, federal and state civil services, professional bodies, women societies, and the organised private sector to participate for this year’s Senior Executive Course at the institute .
He added that the report of their investigative study expected to last for 10 months would be presented to the president at the end of the course.
