Educated Elite Participation in the Formulation of People Oriented Policies and Programmes in Ogun State , Nigeria

Abstract

Democratically elected governments are expected to formulate and implement people oriented policies and programmes as democracy is regarded as government of the people, by the people and for the people. Though government institutions and officials are expected to formulate policies, such policies are expected to be based on the inputs and demands made by the citizens. Citizens’ participation is therefore a primary requirement for formulation of people oriented policies and programmes. In Nigeria, there have been several poverty alleviation policies and programmes that have been implemented by various governments, still poverty still persists in spite of enormous resources that the country possesses. Some scholars have proposed that the lack of input by the citizens have been a major reason for the failure of some of the policies and programmes in the country. It is the light of this, that the study examined the participation of educated elites in the formulation of people oriented policies and programmes in Ogun State, one of the most educationally advantaged states in the country. Descriptive survey design was adopted as the research design for the study, while stratified random sampling was used to locate respondents for the study. A self constructed questionnaire was the instrument that was used to elicit data from 1720 educated elites who were selected as respondents from eight of the twenty local governments in the state. Descriptive analysis of the data revealed that there was high level apathy among the educated elites in the state, as most of them did not use the various platforms for contributing to the policy formulation process of the state. A group of elderly elites, Ogun State Council of Elders made meaningful contributions to the formulation of people oriented policies and programmes in the state.