Nigeria Content Online

In order to make
more impact on the nation’s socio-economic and political spheres and
affect the lives of its people more meaningfully, the Nigerian
Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER), Ibadan, has made a
major adjustment on its research focus.

The Director
General of the institute, Oyetunji Akande, who disclosed this to
journalists in Ibadan at the weekend, said the major policy shift aimed
at making life better for the people at the grassroots across the
country was adopted by the governing council of the institute.

NISER had focused
its researches on the policies of the federal government. But with this
shift, the institute would start looking at the policies of the state
government, analyse them, and make inputs in form of suggestions on
ways that would make the impact of governments trickle down to every
segment of the society.

Mr. Akande, a
professor of Agricultural Economics, observed that persistent failure
of governments at all tiers to properly implement their annual budgets
has inflicted poverty and economic depression on the nation and its
people.

To address this, he
informed that the research institute will start the implementation of
its new policy thrust on the examination of annual budgets of states
across the federation.

“The configuration
of research has changed, and there is now a paradigm shift as NISER is
poised more than ever before to look at the micro economy investment
profile and all the entities involved in governance, in order to make
sure that the grassroots people feel our effect more in terms of
research,” the NISER boss noted as he declared that governments hardly
take the plight of the people at the grassroots into cognizance on
budget implementation.

“The Governing
Council of NISER has agreed to carry our regional/zonal study of the
nation’s administration, and we are starting with annual budget, which
one way or the other affects the society and the economy every year.”

He further explained that findings through their various researches have shown that huge poverty still pervades the land.

Badly produced budget

Lamenting the delay
in passage of Nigeria’s 2010 budget after six months into the fiscal
year, Mr. Akande said his institute would “advise the various
governments to undertake projects dealing with fundamental issues in
their zones.

“By next week, we will be in Kaduna to present our recommendations
for the North West/North East zone. We want the government to come out
with appropriate policies on how they can improve on the circumstances
we have identified for the betterment of the lives of the masses, who
are supposed to be the major beneficiaries of the annual budgets.”