Nigerian author, Paul Oluikpe, who is noted for his novels, Dead on Arrival and the Campus Mafia, has just published a new book titled Swim or Sink: Policy Dynamics in Challenging Environments.
A review of the book finds that the author identifies seven forces which he asserts, influence policy direction and outcomes. These forces are “the economy, politics, ambiguity, complexity, instability, resources and execution. Oluikpe posits that these forces play a dominant role in the way and manner policy propositions translate into outcomes in the larger environment.
He also surmises that sometimes unintended consequences flow from well-intended policy propositions, owing to the interplay of these seven forces and as such, policymakers should begin to think of ways to interact with their environment to avoid policy counteractions and failure.
The thesis of the book rests on the fact that policy poses more challenges and potentialities for controversy out of all the other vehicles for bringing about socio-economic change.
The narrative in the book suggests that policies do not exist in a vacuum, rather they operate within a multifaceted environment. The recognition of this challenges the conventional wisdom that effective policymaking is purely a matter of technical proficiency. Instead, it emphasizes the role of leadership in navigating the intricate interplay of forces that influence public opinion.
This work offers a nuanced analysis of the challenges leaders face in balancing the transactional nature of public opinion with the demands of effective long-term policymaking.
Policymakers, strategists, organizational leaders and researchers would benefit from the well-laid-out logic and principles in this book, which utilizes both historical and contemporary inferences to support the assumptions of the author that policy lives in a nexus of forces, whose interplay inevitably leads to consequences for everyone involved.
Published by Warwick Publishing, the same imprint that published his famed novel, Dead on Arrival, the book has had a good mix of reception amongst policy analysts and practitioners. A Policy Analyst, Jonathan Yisa, surmised that “the dominant imagery of the book is that of a life preserver (lifebuoy), floating in turbulent waters, symbolizing the precarious nature of policymaking in challenging environments.
This visual metaphor effectively reinforces the book’s theme -policymaking as a make-or-break endeavour in complex and unstable contexts”. Another public policy commentator, Uche Ogbonna praises the author’s dexterity, for taking on and expositing on this “complex subject” which many other authors avoid due to the rigorous demands of research and empirical validation of ideas.
Paul Oluikpe, the author, was born on the 12th of July, 1972 in Kputuke, Nvosi, Isiala Ngwa South, Abia State of Nigeria. He is a graduate of Abia State University, where he finished with a Bachelor’s degree in Library Studies.
He then pursued postgraduate education at Loughborough University, UK, earning an MSc from the School of Business and Economics of the university, and subsequently a PhD in Civil Engineering from the same university. He also pursued further postgraduate education at the University of Oxford, finishing with a distinction in Strategy and Innovation at the Said Business School.
Oluikpe is a staff of the Central Bank of Nigeria and has worked for the institution since 2009. He is also a Chartered Banker and a member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria. He is the author of Dead on Arrival (2013), The Campus Mafia(2006), and Knowledge Management: a Project Management Approach (2011).
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