A new study has found that senior Nigerian policymakers with doctorate degrees are significantly more likely to rely on diverse forms of research evidence in decision-making than their counterparts without advanced academic training.
The study, published in Policy Sciences, in February, surveyed about 196 senior policy officers across 13 federal ministries and both chambers of the National Assembly and identified three distinct categories of evidence users in Nigeria’s policymaking system.
In the study titled: “Patterns of evidence use in Nigerian policymaking: insights from latent class analysis”, the researchers found that only 20 per cent of respondents—described as “eclectic users”—regularly engaged with a broad mix of rigorous scientific evidence such as systematic reviews, randomised controlled trials, and peer-reviewed studies, alongside other sources like expert opinions and internal documents.
By contrast, 54 per cent belonged to a middle category that recognised several evidence types but relied mostly on less systematic sources such as case studies, expert opinions, internal policy documents, and needs assessments.
Another 25 per cent were classified as “non-users,” reporting little familiarity with most of the 11 evidence types examined in the study, ranging from meta-analyses to news reports.
