


‘Wise men know that change is part of necessary process which societies must pass if they are to grow and survived in improved state. Wiser men know that change has other faces whose influence might well lead to the improvishment of the very society we wish to nourish’. Nigerians have learned from bitter experiences not to take their leaders at their word. The phrase ‘credibility gap’ entered into their language with Ibrahim Babangida (IBB), Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP); the phenomena grew with every successive presidents. From Vission 2010 of Sani Abacha, Olusegun Obasanjo privatisation, to Yar’adua seven point agenda, Nigerians have been disillusioned again and again and again.

I’d like to make two points to open the discussion, one is general and one is specific. The general point I want to make is that I think profound change has happened in societies when essentially people understand that the cost of staying with the present situations is greater than the cost of change. The specific point I want to make is we’ve always known where we are going, but we’ve don’t know how exactly how we would get there. This is a time for profound change, profound opportunity, and profound dislocation and uncertainty.


Since independence, Nigeria’s economic policies under different administration were seldom subjected to critical public discussion, an important ingredient of a good public policy. Most of our previous administration was under military regimes, which has no popular mandate.





The issue of public discussion and social participation is central to the making of a good policy within a democratic framework. We should begin this no, in the run-up to the next set of elections due in few months. It is for us all to determine the direction of the society we want to build and live in.

Societies and situations differ and the answers will be different in different countries, but, luckily, for us there is accumulated evidence of over quarter of a century of various reforms strategies conceived and implemented all over the world and from which we can learn some useful and practical lessons. These reforms have been implemented in the developed economies, developing economies, and transition economies.



Way Forward

De-Colonise our colonised minds. The economic policies should be appropriately sequenced with objective of combining the pursuit of sustainable growth and human development strategy by devoting massive resources to education (educated society is prerequisite for prosperity), and healthcare in order to eliminate poverty and reduce inequality. In short, the government should put people at the centre of economic policies and development that would be about transforming the lives of people, not just transforming economies or sterile government statistics.




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