Mabogunje, others chart path to better Nigeria

Chairman, Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy (ISGPP); Prof. Akin Mabogunje (left); former President, Nigerian Academy of Science, Prof. Gabriel Ogunmola and Executive Vice President, ISGPP, Dr. Tunji Olaopa at the inauguration of Public Policy Group of ISGPP in Ibadan…yesterday. PHOTO: NAJEEM RAHEEM

As Nigerians groan under the current economic recession, eminent scholar and economist, Prof. Akin Mabogunje yesterday tasked government and policy makers to look beyond mere policy formulation and focus on strategies of implementation.

Mabogunje said while ideas and policies are not in short supply in the country, government lacks the strategies to ensure their implementation.

He spoke with others at the inauguration of a Public Policy Group (PPG) of the Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy (ISGPP), a multidisciplinary think-tank group responsible for identifying key challenges in the nation and proffering suggestions.

Mabogunje, who is the chairman of the schools’s governing board lamented that with the increased cases of unemployment, violence and poverty, there is an urgent need for government as well as policy makers to focus on areas requiring urgent attention for policy formulation and articulation.

Citing the importance of science and technology, Mabogunje noted that with the abundant hours of sunshine in the country, policy makers must come up with ideas that would put the nation at the forefront of those engaged in the production of creative products in the area of renewable solar energy.

In his address, the Vice Chairman of the school, Dr. Tunji Olaopa lamented that Nigeria was yet to attain good governance after 17 years of uninterrupted democratic rule.

Olaopa, a retired federal permanent secretary identified unemployment, poor infrastructure, increased crime rate, illiteracy, poverty as well as insurgency as some of the factors militating against the nation’s democratic rule.