Policy research imperative in Nigeria’s development process The Punch Published 11 July 2021 In 1966, Professor Wolfgang Stolper, Advisor to Nigerian government on the First National Development Plan (1962-1968), delivered a stinging and prescient judgment that goes straight to the heart of Nigeria’s development problematic, and that of any other nations, for that matter. Stolper decried the inherent difficulty in Nigeria’s development planning without the fundamentals of the necessary economic facts and statistics that will backstop policy intelligence, decisions and actions. Stolper made this assertion while he was part of Nigeria’s Economic Planning Unit that prepared the First National Development Plan after independence. One of the fundamental reasons why that development plan failed was the essential lack of statistical parameters by which development policies were to be crafted. Planning without fact implies a state’s lack of a culture of and respect for vital statistics, raw materials and other scientific management parameters in policy making and implementation. This makes it difficult for Nigeria to design and implement cogent policies that address the development and governance challenges in the country in a manner that could be managed scientifically.