By
Nze David N. Ugwu
The Tragic Cycle of Forgetfulness
Every four or eight years, Nigeria resets itself — not in the sense of renewal or improvement, but as an erasure of whatever came before. Each new government, whether at the federal, state, or local level, behaves like a new company with no files, no archives, and no record of prior experience. It discards the policies, reforms, and developmental initiatives of its predecessor — regardless of merit. Projects are abandoned midstream, strategies are shelved, and institutions are restructured or renamed without continuity of purpose.
This is the tragedy of governance without memory — a governance structure where institutional knowledge dies with each political transition. It is one of the most persistent and costly features of Nigeria’s development journey, a cycle that keeps the nation perpetually starting over, wasting billions of naira, and losing decades of progress.
The absence of institutional memory has become a defining characteristic of Nigeria’s public administration — and perhaps one of the most corrosive. It is why the same ideas are repackaged under new slogans, the same projects are re-launched with new logos, and the same failures are repeated with new budgets.
The Anatomy of Lost Continuity
Institutional memory refers to the collective knowledge, experience, and documented history that an organization or system uses to sustain consistency and improvement over time. In governance, it ensures that a country builds on what has been done — learning from past successes and failures instead of repeating mistakes.
In Nigeria, that memory is often erased with each political transition. Ministers replace permanent secretaries; governors sack entire civil service teams; development plans are thrown out in favor of new “agendas” bearing catchy acronyms — Vision 2010, NEEDS, Seven Point Agenda, Transformation Agenda, Change Agenda, Next Level, Renewed Hope. Each administration arrives with a new slogan but no bridge to the past.
The result is a governance environment where policies lack continuity, institutions lack stability, and projects are left to rot once the political will behind them changes. From the Ajaokuta Steel Complex to the East-West Road, from the National Identity Management System to abandoned hospital and school projects across the states — the pattern is the same: start, stop, forget, restart.
Wastage as a Way of Life
The economic and developmental cost of this governance amnesia is staggering. According to independent audits and civil society reports, Nigeria has over 11,000 abandoned projects valued at over ₦12 trillion, scattered across all 36 states. Many of these projects were initiated with good intentions but became victims of leadership change.
When a new governor or president assumes office, the instinct is often political, not developmental. Continuing a predecessor’s project is viewed as a sign of weakness or loyalty to the opposition. Therefore, perfectly viable programs are suspended, reviewed indefinitely, or replaced with new ones to create the illusion of innovation.
Behind this political calculus lies a darker motive — corruption. New projects mean new contracts, and new contracts mean new kickbacks. The cycle of abandonment and re-award has become a profitable enterprise for the political class. Thus, the absence of continuity is not accidental; it is systemic and incentivized.
The Human Cost of Forgotten Governance
Beyond the financial waste, the lack of institutional memory inflicts deep social damage. Communities lose faith in government promises. Farmers see irrigation schemes abandoned. Students attend schools whose buildings were started a decade ago and never finished. Hospitals remain empty shells while citizens die for lack of care.
In some states, thousands of housing units initiated under previous administrations lie unoccupied because successors refused to complete or commission them. At the federal level, major infrastructural projects such as refineries, rail lines, and industrial zones remain perpetually “ongoing” across administrations — like ghost projects haunting the nation’s conscience.
This erosion of continuity also undermines bureaucratic morale. Civil servants who have invested years developing a program often watch helplessly as a new appointee discards it for a fresh start. Expertise is wasted, records are lost, and the wheel is reinvented over and over again.
Why Institutional Memory Matters
Continuity in governance is not a luxury — it is the foundation of progress. Nations that develop sustainably do so because they preserve institutional knowledge and build policies layer by layer, administration by administration.
In Singapore, for example, long-term plans span 20 to 50 years, surviving leadership changes because the civil service is professional and documentation is sacred. In the United Kingdom, government archives, official reports, and institutional briefings ensure that no minister comes into office blind. In the United States, presidential transitions are guided by law, and every agency has a statutory obligation to brief incoming officials with full documentation of ongoing programs and projects.
Nigeria’s failure to do the same means that every new leader begins from zero — even when the solutions already exist on the shelf. Without institutional memory, there can be no institutional learning. And without learning, there can be no development.
The Root Causes of Nigeria’s Governance Amnesia
- Politicization of Development
Governance in Nigeria is deeply personalized. Projects are tied to the image of the leader rather than to institutional goals. The moment the leader leaves office, his or her projects lose ownership and are left to die. - Weak Public Institutions
The bureaucracy, which should be the custodian of continuity, has been weakened by decades of patronage appointments and political interference. Many agencies lack proper documentation, archiving, or digital record systems. - Lack of Policy Documentation and Handover Processes
Transition documents are often perfunctory or non-existent. Outgoing administrations rarely prepare comprehensive handover notes, and incoming ones rarely read them. - Absence of National Development Frameworks
Nigeria’s long-term plans are repeatedly replaced instead of updated. Unlike Malaysia’s Vision 2020 or Rwanda’s Vision 2050, Nigeria’s plans have been fragmented and inconsistent. - Short-term Political Incentives
Politicians prioritize visible, quick projects that can yield electoral benefits within four years rather than programs that require continuity or delayed gratification.
The Politics of Erasure
The culture of discontinuity also reflects Nigeria’s deep-seated politics of antagonism. Successive governments often define themselves by what they reject rather than what they build upon. The opposition’s legacy becomes a symbol of failure to be erased, even when it holds merit.
For example, several national projects have been renamed or rebranded merely to disassociate them from the administration that started them. The same occurs at the state level, where governors have been known to halt even donor-funded initiatives just to assert political independence.
This politics of erasure prevents institutional evolution. Instead of cumulative development, Nigeria experiences discontinuous bursts of reform followed by stagnation. The result is a governance landscape littered with abandoned ideas — each administration believing it is the first to think, plan, or build.
Building Continuity — The Path Forward
Nigeria’s recovery from this governance malaise must begin with institutional reforms that make continuity mandatory, not optional. Some critical steps include:
- Strengthen the Civil Service as the Memory Bank of the State
Professionalize and depoliticize the bureaucracy. Civil servants should be the custodians of knowledge, not political casualties after each election. - Establish a National Governance Transition Act
Mandate all outgoing governments to prepare detailed handover reports and ensure that incoming governments are bound to review and implement viable ongoing projects before initiating new ones. - Create a Central National Project Registry
A digital, publicly accessible database of all federal and state projects — with budget details, contractors, timelines, and completion status — would prevent duplications and abandonment. - Institutionalize Long-Term National Development Plans
Such plans should be legislated, not merely policy statements. This would compel successive governments to align their programs with a shared vision, regardless of party. - Public Accountability and Civic Oversight
Civil society and the media must monitor continuity in government, naming and shaming administrations that abandon critical national projects. - Reward Continuity, Not Reinvention
Political leaders who complete their predecessors’ projects should be celebrated, not mocked. Continuity should be a mark of statesmanship.
Toward a Memory-Rich Republic
Nigeria cannot develop sustainably by constantly forgetting. Every policy discarded, every project abandoned, and every reform reversed pushes the nation backward. The country’s real challenge is not the absence of ideas but the absence of institutional memory to sustain them.
Continuity is the heartbeat of governance. It ensures that each administration adds value rather than erases history. The wisdom of governance lies not in starting afresh but in building upon what works, correcting what fails, and preserving the collective memory of statecraft.
Until Nigeria learns to preserve its institutional memory — through strong systems, consistent documentation, and political maturity — it will continue to run in circles: spending without progress, planning without execution, and building without completion.
The future of Nigeria depends on remembering — remembering where we began, what we have tried, what we have built, and what we must finish. Without memory, governance becomes a ritual of waste. But with memory, governance becomes a continuum of wisdom.
The question now is simple: Will Nigeria choose to remember?
Nze David N. Ugwu is the Managing Consultant of Knowledge Research Consult. He could be reached at [email protected] or +2348037269333.
