Ifeanyi

It is easy, therefore, to assume that our policymakers do not know what they are about. If you add to the conversation our baked-in preference for ...

“What are the benefits policy aims at?” and “How big a cost would we have to bear in order to achieve these benefits?” “Who are the most likely appropriators of these gains?” and “Who are most likely to bear the costs?” “Are we willing to run with the cost-benefit dynamic as they are?” or “Given the multiplier effect of any given policy are we willing to mitigate the negative externalities arising therefrom (and how) in order that we may gain maximally from the benefits?” All of these are key questions. “Who has a look in and why in the design of policy?” is not a question that we have ready answers to. And how do we put a lid on how much each person may illegitimately take out of the coffers? You do not have to be a project planning expert to know that this is not one of our strongest suits as a people. Over the weekend a slew of developments in the local economy again underlined the problem with how policymaking works here. However, the regularity with which we seem to not know what we are doing would seem to suggest a greater purpose to policymaking here.