The government plays some significant role when it comes to functions she performs upon which she exercises public policies. Public policies are the cogent mixture of legislation with politically prioritized ideas with which broad policy directive statements are made, which are directed at civil service and public agencies from time to time for implementation, to enhance adequate socio-economic and market stability which was aimed at the productivity of output. The lives of individuals and that of business organizations are affected every day by policies instituted by governments, political organizations, social organizations, labour groups, educational institutions, labour groups, service organizations, communities and even religious organizations such as churches in the exercise of their functions. Our preoccupation in this study is to look at the functions or role of the government as it affects the economic lives of the citizens of a nation. The pronouncements or policies of all these institutions affect man's life in every ramification especially the economic lives of people. Any time a political or military government decides to continue with an existing public policy of its predecessor, in her bid to carry out these functions, then the functions have to key into the public policy. A mere look at these functions tells one that there is the need for the pronouncement of such public policy statement to keep the actors and the general public (citizens) informed to enlighten everyone to play his part in achieving the desired goal of government. Hence, it is our major objective to look at the reasons for such statements and to bring to the fore the divergent roles of government which permits them to issue such public statements, and their implementations. We observed that every sphere of the lives of the citizenry is touched by the government over her policies. The government has many roles to perform in an economy. The government spends and makes money, consumes goods and services, creates goods and services, creates jobs and employ people. The Federal, state, and local governments raise funds directly through taxes, levies, fines, fees, etc. to enable her to carry out her functions in the economy. These areas include the maintenance of peace, law and order, defence and security, the regulation of certain sectors of the economy through public policy statements especially that of petroleum oil (mining sector), the agricultural sector, and the industrial and manufacturing sector, and more especially with the budget etc. with diverse policies which included that of the development plans, social distributive justice, progressive taxation, efficient utilization of resources. participation in crises resolution during a financial or economic crisis, maintenance of price stability and ceiling, Control of inflation, Stoppage of black marketing especially in crude or petroleum bunkering, maintenance of law and order especially during periods of political disorder, crises or chaos. In the final analysis, it was established that government plays various roles in the state among those roles. It is recommended that public policies should be firm, enduring and enacted in the true spirit of patriotism, for truly developmental in nature and should bring about economic development and growth.
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Nov 25, 2019
Britt Erickson 
Open Access