Public Policy and Good Governance: An Operational Problematic Towards SDGs

Abstract

Good governance is the hallmark of public policy in every modern state system. Hence, individuals, groups, government and non-governmental relations whether at the level of co operation, competition or conflict, are largely dependent on the efficacy and currency of public policy implementation. Thus, the paper interrogates President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s fuel subsidy removal policy on good governance as the fulcrum of public policy as the driver of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations (UN) in 2015. Methodologically the study relied on secondary sources of data as the system theory was adopted as an analytical paradigm. The study was centered on three thematic areas which included (a) Public policy and the Nigerian state (b) Fuel subsidy removal policy (c) Challenges of good governance. It was revealed at the end of the study that public policy has failed to address issues of public concern in the past two decades and rather focused on satisfying the wishes of the oligarchy ruling class. The paper recommended among others that public policy should originate from the people in tandem with the ruling class.