Nigerian public sector boards often function as social clubs rather than governing bodies

He explains that while a club brings people together based on shared connections, a board should be composed of individuals who collectively possess the competencies to govern an institution. Olagunju highlights that the selection process for these boards often prioritizes political affiliation, social networks, and personal relationships over the necessary skills, independence of judgment, and diversity of perspective required for effective governance. This leads to "friendly boards" where disagreement is avoided, and critical conversations are not held, resulting in institutions slowly becoming irrelevant.

He proposes an alternative: "boards of builders," which are deliberately composed based on the specific competencies needed to govern an institution, citing the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority NSIA and the Federal Inland Revenue Service FIRS under Ifueko Omoigui Okauru as positive examples. Olagunju provides five tests to distinguish a club from a board, focusing on network diversity, competency-based selection, capacity for genuine disagreement, willingness to challenge the Chief Executive, and resilience to member changes. He concludes that changing how public sector board appointments are made, by prioritizing competence and independence over political and relational considerations, is cru