The Obasanjo Administration's Reform Agenda

Abstract

Since his reelection in 2003, the President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has embarked on a series of reforms which he hopes and believes will take Nigeria out of the doldrums to the promised land of socio-economic, political and technological development. While the President claims that the various reforms were preceded by extensive consultations, his critics charge that the President is carrying on with the reforms in a cynical and arrogant way as if only he "knows it all". Indeed, it is argued by the critics that many aspects of the reforms are "anti-people," as exemplified in the newly enacted labour law. Yet it is obvious that without the support of the people across all socioeconomic categories, the reforms are not likely to succeed. The questions therefore arise: to what extent is the reform agenda known and understood by the generality of Nigerians? -To what extent are the President's goals and aspirations congruent with the people or acceptable to them? This paper seeks to provide answers to these questions. The paper is structured as follows: after this introduction, section two provides the background to and the content of the reform agenda as presented in the NEEDS document; Section III discusses the methodology, Section IV the analyses of the focus group discussions while Section V discusses and concludes the paper.