Systems Analysis of the Nigerian Plant Health Regulatory Framework: Institutional Capacity, Policy Gaps, and Reform Pathways

Nigeria's plant health regulatory system encompasses multiple institutions, legislative instruments, and international treaty obligations, yet empirical analysis of institutional capacity, inter-agency coordination efficiency, and policy coherence within this system remains absent from the published literature. Strengthening plant health governance is a prerequisite for effective phytosanitary risk management as Nigeria's agricultural imports, exports, and domestic crop disease threats continue to increase in scale and complexity. This doctoral research conducts a systems analysis of the Nigerian plant health regulatory framework, drawing on regulatory theory, institutional economics, and phytosanitary policy analysis. Data are collected through structured interviews with 120 regulatory practitioners from NAQS, NAFDAC, NIMET, state ministries of agriculture, and international bodies including EPPO and FAO over a two-year period, complemented by document analysis of 45 years of plant health policy instruments and secondary data on phytosanitary incident records. Systems mapping identifies institutional boundaries, information flows, decision authority structures, and feedback loops governing how plant health threats are detected, assessed, and responded to. Comparative analysis benchmarks Nigerian institutional capacity against ECOWAS regional norms and international standard-setting bodies. The research identifies six systemic reform pathways, including mandatory inter-agency disease notification protocols, national diagnostic laboratory accreditation, and a phytosanitary human resource development strategy. The dissertation makes original contributions to plant pathology governance theory by developing the first systems-theoretic model of a national plant health regulatory architecture in West Africa. Keywords: plant health governance, regulatory framework, institutional capacity, Nigeria, phytosanitary policy.