Why FG should create Policy Implementation Ministry ― ex CIBN boss

The immediate past president and chairman of the council, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, Professor Bola Ajibola, has called on the Federal Government to create a separate ministry to be in charge of policy implementation in the country.

He said this is necessary since no specific ministry is saddled with the responsibility of coordinating and implementing various suggestions and recommendations arising from various important conferences, workshops, and other events of public interest in the academic communities and other public and private sector institutions and by professional bodies.

He made the call while speaking at the 2nd Babcock University Public Affairs Forum organised by the Veronica Adeleke School of Social Sciences of the university in Ilishan-Remo, Ogun State, last week. He spoke on “Sustainable Development and Nigeria’s March to the Future.”

He said oftentimes, academia, ministries, government departments and agencies, as well as professional bodies, do come up with good recommendations and suggestions from conferences, workshops, convocation lectures and so forth but that such events usually end as mere talk-shops.

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“And this is because there is a great disconnect between government and the people as well as policy formulation and policy implementation in the country,” he stressed.

While emphasising that the absence of this is greatly hampering the country’s socio-economic development, Prof Ajibola said now is the appropriate time to create the said ministry more so that the country is striving to attain the Sustainable Development Goals’ projects of the United Nations which include No Poverty, Zero Hunger, Good health and well-being, quality education, clean water and sanitation, gender equality and so forth by 2030.

“We need to let our passion for a new Nigeria as a country and as a people guide our walking the talk,” he said.

Ajibola, who is a professor of economics, while also calling for the cooperation of critical sectors of the national economy like banking, oil and gas, telecommunications, manufacturing, agriculture to partner governments at both federal and state levels to sincerely promote the on-going campaign of producing “what we use and using what we produce.”

According to him, Nigeria needs to harness the opportunities that digitalization offers and also encourages the informal sector through well-packaged policies and incentives and not just to make repeated calls on banks to provide funds without a committed approach towards resolving other problems such as infrastructural decay, insecurity, harsh market conditions and so forth.

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He also urged various universities in the country not only to promote town-gown relationship and conduct problem-solving researches, but also to ensure that their various academic programmes reflect the needs of a modern-day economy like that of Singapore, Malaysia, and South Korea.

He said that would be a way to go to make Nigeria’s economy a force in the comity of nations.

Speaking earlier, the President/Vice-Chancellor of Babcock University, Prof. Ademola Tayo, said it would be a great advantage for Nigeria if citizens could be portraying the country in good (and not bad) light.

He said though the government might not have been doing enough in such areas like electricity, security, road infrastructures, healthcare and education, people should be more concerned about how Nigeria and by extension Africa and the world, could be transformed through SDGs projects. The VC was represented at the event by his Chief of Staff, Dr David Alao.

In her own remarks, the programme convener and Dean of Veronica Adeleke School of Social Sciences, Dr Olajumoke Haliso, explained that the forum, which was the second in the series is designed as a veritable vehicle to proffer solutions to an identified pressing issue affecting the country.