Public Policy Failures in Nigeria: Pathway to Underdevelopment

Abstract

This paper discusses public policy failures in Nigeria and the reasons why governments formulate policies, among which is to find solutions to people’s problems. The paper discussed briefly three schools of thought on public policies, that is, the orthodox or neo-classical, radical, and growth-with-equity.  It also enumerated some of the public policies that have failed in the country since 1976 and examined the reasons for their failures. The historical and content analysis method was adopted for the paper. The paper reveals, among other reasons, that regime change and poor funding of policies and clarity of purpose are partly responsible for policy failures in Nigeria.  The implications of public policy failures to the citizens in particular and the country in general were stated, some of which are waste of scarce resources, less patriotism among the populace, and de-motivation of citizens.  In order to avoid policy failures in future, the paper recommends that there should be continuity in policy implementation even where there is regime change as government is a continuum; and parochial and primordial interests should be avoided during policy formulation and implementation in the country.

Key words: public, policy, failures, development, pathway, underdeveloment