The President, Institute of Planning, Nigeria (IPN), Dr. McCarthy Ijiebor, has stressed the need for planners to see their vocation as pivotal to the success of Nigeria.
Speaking during a two-day conference that focused on: ‘Nigeria’s post-pandemic economy and business development – The way forward for planners at national and sub-national level,’ held in Lagos, he commended some state and local government institutions that have deployed strategic planning tools and human resources in defining a desired future and have begun implementing workable plans, stressing that the country needed more at the national level.
He said IPN was set up to assist government at all levels, as well as stakeholders in the policy formulation and implementation processes that will engender sustainable development for the country.
In his keynote address, Prof Richard Mayungbe said the new world order would shape the way business and governance is to be done. He highlighted the possibilities that the internet and data sciences would shape the stakeholder interactions in the future.
“The place of COVID-19 in this complex situation created a tough position in achieving seamless service delivery, customer satisfaction and by extension, adequate revenue for reward and recognition in most businesses,” he said.
In a communiqué at the end, the institute said because disasters were part of human endeavour, it was expected of humans to put in place policies and preventive actions to absorb whatever shock any break-out may pose.
They stated that the government needed to be up and doing in formulating policies and implementing them, stressing that the approach to be adopted should be bottom-up, where major policy inputs emanate from the populace whom the intending policies were meant to serve.
“Just like what is obtainable in the West where examples are hurriedly cited, policy makers should learn to use policy instruments like referendum, opinion polls etc. which reflects the government’s commitment to develop ‘home-grown’ solutions.
“Streamlining of agencies should continue to be non-negotiable as is observed by the current administration. This will help to reduce the burden on our yearly recurrent budget and channel resources to other sectors where they are better useful,” the communiqué stated.
They advised that the government should discontinue the habit of responding to issues in the polity by hurriedly launching parallel agencies that had hitherto been in existence.
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