Public sector reforms are unlikely to succeed when they are imposed from above without the trust and participation of the people expected to implement and benefit from them, former permanent secretary Dr Dere Awosika has said.
Speaking on the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation podcast, Reform Is Not a Guessing Game, Awosika urged governments to treat reform as a conversation rather than a chain of instructions.
“Reforms are not supposed to be a pass down of instructions,” she said. “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.”
Awosika, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of Josephine Consulting Ltd, said public servants and affected communities must be involved from the beginning.
Their experiences, she explained, can help policymakers identify institutional weaknesses, understand implementation challenges and design solutions that reflect local realities.
She pointed to Nigeria’s polio eradication campaign as an example of how trust and consultation can transform public programmes.
By engaging traditional and religious leaders, she said, authorities were able to address community concerns and improve acceptance of vaccination.
“We need to build trust with citizenry. They cannot believe us unless we trust them,” Awosika said.
Dr Akin Olusoji-Akinyele, an economist and policy strategist who also took part in the discussion, said consultation must continue throughout the reform process.
According to him, beneficiaries should be able to provide feedback on whether reforms are delivering the intended results. “The reform itself is not complete until the beneficiary has given you some form of feedback as to whether this is working,” he said.
The discussion was moderated by Ofovwe Aig-Imoukhuede, Executive Vice Chair of the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation, ahead of the launch of its Public Sector Reform Playbook in Abuja on November 19, 2026.
