Public Opinion and Public Policy in the Context of Nigeria

Abstract

Public opinion and public policy are reflective link between the masses and the government in democracies. This discourse examined the pertinence of public opinion in public policies from Nigeria’s context. The methodology of the study is qualitative design with emphasis on documentary and observational sources of data which were presented and content-analyzed. The findings of the discourse revealed interesting trends in the significance of strident public protest in reversing arbitrary government’s policy actions as public concerns failed to make meaningful impact in the formulation and administration of public policies in Nigeria. Based on these findings, the discourse recommends for public interactive forum for opinion expression in governance, the creation of national opinion poll survey institute, advocacy of the civil society organizations as among the fundamentals to mainstream public concerns in policy conception an administration in Nigeria.