Research on Humanities and Social Sciences www.iiste.org ISSN (Paper)2224-5766 ISSN (Online)2225-0484 (Online) Vol.6, No.15, 2016 60 Problems and Challenges of Policy Implementation for National Development IYANDA KAMORU AHMED PH.D Department Of History And International Studies,Nigeria Police Academy, Wudil Kano. BELLO SANUSI DANTATA Department of political Science, Nigeria Police Academy, Wudil Kano Abstract As policies and programmes continue to fail in Nigeria, public confidence in government ability to achieve national development erodes. Analysis in public policy implementation continually assumes a greater significance. Public policy is not a bed of roses; it is often challenging and creative, many proposals faced obstacles on their way to implementation. Most proposals do not survive and those that do, emerged mutilated or distorted, so that they no longer serves their intended purposes. The objectives of the paper are to examine the problems and challenges of policy implementation in Nigeria. The paper relies on secondary data for its presentation and analysis. It is of the view that effective policy implementation can only be achieved not only through a continuous political commitment and clear definition of responsibilities and coordination, but also through genuine commitment to eradication of corruption at all levels of government. Introduction Public policy implementation has been described as the major problem confronting Nigeria in its effort to achieve national development. Implementation often turn out to be the graveyard of many policies. From experience, little attention is paid to the subject of policy implementation by policy makers. It is often taken for granted that once a policy is adopted by government, it must be implemented and the desired goals achieved. And in most cases little or no attention is paid to the problems and complexities associated with execution of policies. Large amount of energy and resources are spent on designing and preparing plans for all kinds with little or no thought given to the complex chains of reciprocal interactions and variables required and this can be seen usually in the widening gap between intentions and results. The situation of public policy implementation in Nigeria is best described by George Honadle and Rudi Klauss, (cited from Egonmwan, 2009) “Implementation is the nemesis of designers, it conjures up images of plans gone awry and of social carpenters and masons who fail to build to specifications and thereby distort the beautiful blue prints for progress which were handled to them. It provokes memories of good ideas that did not work and places the blame on the second (and Second Class) member of the administration team" This is a typical situation in Nigeria, where the intention of designers of Policies are often underline by constellation of powerful forces of politics and administration coupled with prevalence of high level corruption. The resulting short-comings, difficulties and failures that have attended major policies in developing countries have help to direct attention to the need for planning explicitly, management of policy implementation in which adequate attention is paid to such factors as political variable and institutional capacity to execute and operate development projects. It also led to the emergence of theories and models particularly during the period of the United Nations second development plan decade in 1970, when emphasis shifted from plan formulation to plan feasibility. These theoretical constructs have been designed to help policy makers, especially toward better understanding of the problems of policy implementation. (Egonmwan 2009) The Concept of Public Policy It is sensible to begin our discussion of implementation with analysis of how public policy is perceived and understood. Many scholars regard policy implementation as a separate activity which takes place after policy has been formulated. Although this view is held because there is little appreciation of the fact that building support for policies is an integral part of designing them. This widely held view on separation of policy design from implementation has been attacked by scholars like Pressenca and Wildavsky (1973) as fatal from any sense of direction. They argued that "the separation of policy formulation from implementation is fatal. It is not better than mindless implementation without a sense of direction, though we can isolate policy formulation and policy implementation for a separate discussion" (cited in Egonmwan 2009). However, a number of implementation scholars make a conceptual distinction between policy formulation- and policy implementation. Example Sabatier (1986), Sabatier and Mazmanian (1983). Chronologically, implementation is though to occur after the adoption of a policy.