THE hitherto closed issue of toll gates on Nigeria's federal highways has again come to the fore for discourse. This is so because the Federal Government is preparing to reintroduce toll gates across the country in January, 2012. Toll gates were dismantled on federal roads across the country in 2004 by the Obasanjo Administration for two main reasons: first, as a condition for increase in the pump prices of petroleum products and, second, because of entrenched corruption in the management of the toll gates by the contractors to whom they were concessioned. This policy sommersault once again raises the issue of inconsistency in government policies. Governments at the three tiers have been notorious for their inconsistency in policies. Since independence, each administration that came to power discontinued many policies of the preceding administration.The inconsistency in the ban on importation of goods also serves as another key example of government's inconsistency on critical issues. Last week, President Goodluck Jonathan declared that there would be a ban on the importation of rice in 2012. Public affairs analysts noted that that was not the first of such announcements, only for it to be reversed or not even implemented. The major effect of this lack of policy consistency on the part of government is that the country has for so long been deprived of sustained quality policies that could have fast tracked its socioeconomic growth and development. Such policy summersaults have dealt debilitating blows to the economic transformation and the political growth of the country. Nigeria is certainly not in short of ideas and policies on the problems of the country. What it lacks are, implementation and post implementation follow up. It is also hamstrung by the absence of the much-needed political will on the part of the leaders to take the right decisions at critical times in the overall interest of the country. Too much is sacrificed on the altar of political calculations, vendatta, irrationality and selfishness. A most terrible example of this is the disposition of the current government of Ogun State headed by Senator Ibikunle Amosun which is determined, for reasons that are less than noble, to erase many of the laudable and beneficial policies, programmes and projects of the immediate past administration in the state. Yet, in addition to goodwill and openness, political will on the part of leaders is a critical success factor for any democratic country. Without this key ingredient, leaders would not be able to easily implement policies that will move the country forward particularly in its search for accelerated economic growth, infrastructural development and overall development.In Nigeria, the lack of political will to implement good policies accounts for incessant policy reversals. It also accounts for why many good policies are jettisoned mid-way into implementation, sometimes in preference to ill-advised ones. Going forward, Nigerian political leaders must henceforth become broad-minded and live above petty politics and jealousies that often subvert progress and the will of the people. Leaders should keep the best interest of the populace and country at the centre of planning, implementation and continuation of policies. They must be ready to serve selflessly with emphasis on probity and accountability, while they must also display a high sense of openness in governance. The practice of jettisoning good ideas and policies put in place by past administrations must stop, as a good policy remains good for the people, no matter who instituted it. All new policies and ideas must be well researched and must take cognisance of the need for buy in by all stakeholders before they are introduced, so that the critical sectors of the public for whom the policies are meant would buy in to the policy and also own it. That way, the country would be on the way to having enduring and consistent policies that would help leap frog it to sustained development.
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