1st June, 2021
Secretary to the Lagos State Government (SSG), Folashade Jaji on Tuesday revealed that Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu approved the establishment of the newly created Policy Analysis, Monitoring and Evaluation (PAME) Department in a bid to enhance good governance in the state.
Jaji spoke while flagging off the commencement of a local study tour by participants of the Senior Executive Course 43, 2021 of the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, held in Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos.
She said the confirmation of the successful policy implementation in Lagos State was evident in its success stories that cut across infrastructure renewal, revenue generation, public transportation, housing, education, technology, healthcare delivery, environment, empowerment and many more in the last two years.
Jaji was optimistic that the study tour would avail the participants the opportunity to critically assess the state’s strategies, gather more data and come up with recommendations that would help develop better policies and implementation strategies which would assist to further develop the nation.
She said Lagos has become one of the fastest growing cities in the world with the fourth Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Africa and one of the largest and busiest seaports on the continent.
Jaji added that the theme of the 2021 study tour, “Getting things Done: Strategies for Policies and Programme Implementation in Nigeria,” tallied with Sanwo-Olu’s vision of getting everyone on board to translate the goals of achieving a greater Lagos into reality under the THEMES Agenda.
The SSG stated that in Lagos, the government had come to realize that no matter how good the policies were, they could not be successful without efficient and effective implementation.
Permanent Secretary, Cabinet Office/Office of SSG, Tolani Oshodi, said the tour is undoubtedly a way of placing the experience of participants in the services of national and sub-national governments in the country with tour themes put in place to assist socio-economic development.
She said the theme could not have been more apt especially at this time that national and sub-national governments were frantically searching out ways to achieve sustainability of policies, projects and programmes just as they were busy searching out for the most efficient, effective and economical ways of achieving state mandates.
According to her, through the study, participants would have the opportunity to interact directly with policy and programmes implementation arms of government with a view to identifying policy implementation successes despite the challenges posed by COVID-19 pandemic, economic recession and the #EndSARS protest.
Oshodi said she was optimistic that at the end of the tour, appropriate data would be gathered on the challenges militating against getting things done in Nigeria in order to prepare recommendations for both the federal and state governments.
The Institute Librarian, NIPSS, Dr Emmanuel Mamman, said in Nigeria, getting things done, implementation of public policies,,. had been a problem.
He said Lagos State has been identified as a place where policies were being done and implemented, and that they came to find out what lessons they could get from Lagos and take them home for use.
Mamman stated that the problem with this nation was that “we are not patriotic, bad governance, lack of commitment, this kind of laxity and misdemeanour affect progress.
“We are going out to interact with the policy makers and in the end, find out how things are done in Lagos State.”