Dere Awosika, a former permanent secretary and Nigerian businesswoman, has urged federal governments to adopt a citizen-centred approach to public sector reforms.
She warned that policies imposed without adequate consultation may fail to address the challenges they are designed to solve.
Awosika said public sector reforms must reflect the needs, experiences and realities of citizens and public servants to achieve their intended objectives, stressing that governments should engage affected communities and relevant stakeholders before introducing changes.
She argued that reform initiatives should not be treated as directives handed down by government institutions but as processes that require dialogue, identification of institutional weaknesses and a clear understanding of why existing policies and systems are not delivering expected results.
Awosika spoke on Friday during an episode of the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation podcast, Reform Is Not a Guessing Game, where she highlighted the importance of stakeholder engagement in designing and implementing sustainable public sector reforms.
According to her, consultations give reformers an opportunity to identify institutional gaps, understand different stakeholders’ interests, and develop implementation strategies responsive to local circumstances.
“Reforms are not supposed to be a pass down of instructions. It’s supposed to be a discussion on the weaknesses, identify them, and see that the goals that you set to meet are not being met,” she said.
The Chief Executive Officer of Josephine Consulting Ltd said her experience leading polio eradication efforts in Nigeria demonstrated how community engagement could determine the success or failure of public programmes.
She explained that working closely with traditional and religious leaders helped programme implementers address public concerns, build confidence and secure community acceptance of vaccination campaigns.
According to her, the experience showed that government initiatives would struggle to achieve their objectives without establishing trust between public institutions and the citizens they serve.
Awosika stressed that building trust required government and reform advocates to recognise citizens as important stakeholders whose experiences and perspectives should inform policy decisions.
“We need to build trust with citizenry. They cannot believe us unless we trust them,” she said.
Also speaking, Akin Olusoji-Akinyele, an economist and policy strategist, said feedback from beneficiaries should be an integral part of the public sector reform process.
He argued that the effectiveness of reforms should not be determined solely by government officials or the institutions responsible for implementing them, but also by the experiences of the people expected to benefit from the changes.
Olusoji-Akinyele said continuous engagement with beneficiaries would enable governments to assess whether reforms were producing the desired outcomes and identify areas requiring adjustments.
He maintained that the reform process could not be considered complete until beneficiaries had provided feedback on the effectiveness of the policies and interventions.
“The reform itself is not complete until the beneficiary has given you some form of feedback as to whether this is working,” he said.
