The FG will review outdated MDA policies

The federal government said it had detected some government ministries, departments and agencies using outdated policies.

The government said work is underway to review outdated policies to bring them in line with current realities.

Special Assistant to the President on Policy Coordination, Hadiza Bala-Usman, disclosed this on Monday in Abuja during the inauguration of the Sectoral Policy Review and Harmonization Commission.

Bala-Usman noted that the move is part of the incumbent administration’s efforts to increase efficiency in the public sector

She said: “The federal government has seen fit to establish a team to review sector policies and coordinate sector policies with enhanced inter-sector collaboration.

“We have noted concerns about some of the outdated policies in place across our sectors and the need to engage with relevant ministries and stakeholders to develop a current policy implementation that meets the realities of what is needed to achieve our eight presidential priorities.”

Bala-Usman assured everyone that the planned review would not impact the operations of the affected MDAs.

She said: “These are ongoing works that will not hinder the implementation of existing policies in these ministries.

“We strive to review them, update them to current realities, recognize where there may be contradictions or overlaps across sectors, and identify areas of interconnection between sector ministries.

“And importantly, one aspect of our work is the need to have a national framework and template for policy formulation and implementation.”

Director General of the National Institute of Political and Strategic Studies, prof. Ayo Omotayo, said the main obstacle to policy development in Nigeria has consistently been the tendency of MDAs to operate in isolation.

Omotayo said: “The bane of policy development in Nigeria has always been that all MDAs work in silos. The President found it appropriate that there is a need for harmony in what is happening in the political ecosystem, and he appointed a special advisor to deal with all this.

“We want to assure everyone that NIPSS, together with other collaborating agencies, will deliver an actionable plan to the nation and develop an implementation framework that will ensure that policies in Nigeria are no longer self-contradictory.”