By Onozure Dania

Lagos—Director General of Public Administration and Management Development Institute, PAMDI, Dr Elijah Ogbuokiri, has said that Nigeria cannot make any meaningful progress in development unless the way institutions are managed are are engineered, as corruption is embedded in all processes and activities in Nigeria.

He noted that there were adequate laws and resources in the country but the institutional framework to drive them for the benefit of the society was weak and poor due to endemic corruption and politicisation of the entire public service system.

Ogbuokiri, who briefed newsmen  ahead of its third annual conference coming up in Abuja, with Theme “Building Strong Institutions, a Necessity for Good Governance, Rule of Law, Transparency and Accountability,” said that the conference is one of the ways in which PAMDI used to reach out to government on the urgent needs of Nigeria as a country to build strong public institutions as a remedy for mis-governance and promotion of rule of law, accountability and transparency .

He said that the public administrators would only be able to execute their duties effectively if they were allowed to function without any interference from the political office holders and powers-that-be.

“On an annual basis, huge sums of money are budgeted and released by the government at various levels but it can hardly be identified what such monies are used for. Implementation of budgets and projects has been poorly executed because our public administrators have failed in their duties or are not allowed to function as expected.”

Ogbuokiri, added that in their quest to promote excellent leadership, good corporate governance, accountability and development, the institute was focusing on development management which past Nigerian leaders have neglected to the detriment of the society.