The Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, has called for an improvement in governance and institutional capacity to properly manage the resources of nations.
Osinbajo stated that the improvement in these areas was pivotal to the prosperity of the citizenry, adding that such improvement must be at all times.
The Vice President’s remarks were quoted in a statement signed by his aide on Media & Publicity, Laolu Akande, at the opening of the 21st meeting of the National Council on Development Planning held in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State adding that governance and institutional capacity account for the difference between performing and poorly performing economies.
The meeting, which was attended by members of the Federal and States’ Executive Councils was themed, ‘Good Governance and Institutional Capacity: Pathways to Sustainable National Development’.
Osinbajo said, “It is the lack of good governance and weak institutional capacity in the poorer and less performing economies that largely account for the difference between the poor and rich countries.
“The way that public institutions and agencies perform public affairs and manage public resources, and also how they manage the participation of citizens, and ensure equity and the rule of law, are what makes the difference between the poor and rich, performing and non-performing countries.”
The Vice President referenced Japan, South Korea and Singapore as countries that still perform better than the resource-rich nations of the world, and noted that enforced systems helped them to be transparent and accountable.
He added that poor governance and institutional capacity created weak economies which were detrimental to living standards of citizens.
“How public institutions function is largely determined by institutional capacity. This is not merely having a well educated and well-motivated workforce, but systems that are and can enforce transparency and accountability.
“Where accountability is weak or non-existent and poor performance or misconduct have no real consequences; poor performance then becomes systemic.
“The result of poor governance is that delivery of public goods is ineffective, every public service is affected, whether it is collection of taxes, or delivery of social investment programmes, public education, health services, obtaining trade facilitation approvals or just passports or drivers licence, public running of power services or delivery of petroleum products.
“Poor governance and institutional capacity mean a weak economy, private sector performs sub-optimally because the business environment is hostile, so fewer jobs are created, housing stocks may fall where private people do not build houses for rent, because when tenants fail to pay rent they can remain in the accommodation for years without paying rent because the court system is too slow and they cannot be legally evicted while the court process subsists,” Osinbajo added.
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