The Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief, Guardian Newspapers Limited, Martins Oloja, has charged the incoming Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led administration to adopt the private sector approach to put the nation on a steady path to achieve economic growth and development, noting that the model would prioritize the welfare of electorates.
He urged the incoming administration to also prioritise efforts in nation building more than ever before, explaining that the nation has been divided as a result of ethnic bias and other socioeconomic and cultural factors.
Speaking at the investiture of new Executive of the Commerce and Industry Correspondents Association of Nigeria (CICAN) tagged the agenda, “Agenda Setting for the incoming federal government administration”, in Lagos, he stated the need to encourage the incoming administration to manage priorities in the public sector as if it were in the private sector.
“Let me quickly clarify this: it is important to adopt the private sector approach and see citizens as customers to be satisfied. Marketers are always told in a customer-centric business that the customer is king. In this construct, the citizen should be seen by political leaders as a customer whose rebellion or boycott can destroy a business enterprise. When political leaders begin to see the citizen as a customer whose patronage is necessary to survive, they will begin to treat the people as potential electorate they will depend on to win elections next time,” he said.
“Prioritisation can be a device for policy-makers to realise political ambitions, or to signal policy shifts. However, prioritisation is also typically embedded in policy processes, either in a routinised fashion, or as responses to triggering events. Key challenges in this regard can be how to translate broad priorities into programs and projects, how to govern the knowledge base, and how to handle organisational tensions during implementation. Many of these challenges must be addressed by ‘street-level’ administrators and agency experts during implementation,” he advised.
He, however, stated that the removal of the petrol subsidy, the crashing or hike in the petrol price presently at over N190 per litre, as well as making petroleum products available are the immediate hurdles the incoming Tinubu administration must resolve after May 29.
“Our new leaders should develop their own tactics to put across the sense of urgency and prove that they are materially attentive to the needs of their citizens,” he advocated.
Photo: Mr. Martin Onoja, Managing Director and Editor -in-Chief, Guardian Newspapers Limited.
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