What is this all about?
This is a blog with a no-holds-barred approach to the review of public and international affairs. Unless otherwise stated, each post will start with popular expectations on specific challenges and on preferred outcomes. It will then proceed to interrogate the responses of, and the impact made by, the various stakeholders. A deficit there would always be between what a public wants and what it gets. The focus on that gap, the gap between wishes and horses, is what gives the blog its name, its identity. While checking for clues on challenges, responses, and outcomes, and, as to be expected, coming up with negative balances, each post will not leave the public affairs account in the red but will proceed to identify those suitably placed to narrow the deficits.
Since charity begins at home, the first in the series of posts will be devoted exclusively to the dissection of “the Nigerian question”–that is, the whys and the wherefores of the entity known as Nigeria as well as the country’s dominant challenges.
Thereafter, attention will shift to contemporary challenges facing municipal and international institutions.
Who am I, and what qualifies me for the role?
I was Senior Adviser in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, UNDESA, at the UN Headquarters in New York. I had earlier served as Senior Adviser in Governance and Public Administration Reform at the UN Economic Commission for Africa, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (from 1987 to 2003). Before joining the UN in 1987, I was the Director-General and Chief Executive of The Administrative Staff College of Nigeria. I taught at leading universities, ultimately attaining the status of Professor of Public Administration.
I graduated B A (Hons) (Admin) from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. I also hold an MA Economics (with Distinction) from the Victorian University of Manchester; and PhD in Public Sector Management from the University of Leeds, UK.
I, at various times, served as Secretary-General, Nigerian Association for Public Administration and Management (1980-83); and external examiner at different universities (1980-2004).
I am the founding editor of the African Journal of Public Administration and Management, a journal that I edited for eight years (1992-2000). I also served as editorial adviser to Kumarian Press, and member of editorial board of leading public administration journals.
I was appointed member of the Presidential Committee on the Review of Public Service Reform Process in Nigeria in March 2011.
I am frequently invited to undertake consulting assignments in governance and public sector management, and to serve as a motivational speaker at important events.
Frequency of posts
The posts will initially appear every week, and subsequently, on a daily basis.
Jide Balogun, Newmarket, ON, Canada