Professor Franca Ovadje is Founder and Executive Director of Danne Institute for Research and author of Leading and Sustaining Change in the Public Sector.
In this interview with SAAWUA TERZUNGWE, she explains what inspired her book, the reforms that could transform productivity and the business environment, why Nigeria cannot achieve sustained economic growth without public-sector transformation, the lessons from former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s reform era, and how the country can ensure that reforms survive beyond the leaders who introduced them. Excerpts: What actually inspired you to author this book and what does the book intend to achieve?
I am very concerned about nation-building. I consider myself a patriotic Nigerian. I have been teaching leadership and change management at Lagos Business School and outside Lagos Business School for many years, and I noticed the enormous impact the public sector has on the private sector. I also wrote a case study with Professor Pat Utomi some years ago, and that was part of my introduction to the public sector.
It became clear to me that when the public sector is not well run, it can make the private sector underperform in several ways. We have seen how the public sector helped through liberalisation and contributed to the improvement of sectors such as telecommunications and banking. But the government can also do the opposite. It can become a roadblock instead of a facilitator for business and for the flourishing of lives.
Around 2013, while I was still at Lagos Business School, I organised a public-private sector dialogue. I realised that many executives in the private sector who had done very well and run successful businesses were frustrated. They were asking: “We are Nigerians. How can we have a public sector like this? How can it become a roadblock instead of a facilitator for