First FEC Retreat under Pres. Tinubu: Matter Arising (1)-Dr. Otive Igbuzor

-News/Comments, November 8, 2023

The first ministerial retreat for members of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu Federal Executive Council was held from the 1^st to 3^rd November, 2023. The retreat was held 10 weeks after the President inaugurated the first set of 45 Ministers on 21^st August, 2023. Three of them were inaugurated later making a total of 48 ministers. The theme of the retreat was delivering on the renewed Hope Agenda. The retreat was among other things focused on quarterly assessment of performance which would culminate into an annual scorecard and define Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the MDAS which will eventually lead to the Ministers signing a performance bond.

RECCOMMENDATIONS FROM THE RETREAT

At the end of the retreat, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Sen. George Akume listed the recommendations from the retreat which were categorised into two namely administrative process of the government and policies and priorities for the renewed Hope Agenda.

1. Administrative Processes of the Government
2. Government should raise the approval threshold for public procurement and encourage open bidding for transparency.
3. Cabinet members should submit memos ahead of time (eg EOD Wednesday) for analysis with Permanent Secretaries before the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting.
4. Improve alignment of the budget for the MDAs to the President’s vision, Strategic goals and relevant Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
5. Formulate a standardised checklist detailing appointment criteria for Ministers and Heads of agencies.
6. Allow Ministers presenting memoranda at FEC to be accompanied by their Permanent Secretaries to hasten information flow.
7. Evaluate the efficiency of previous Federal government intervention programmes and conduct proper pre- and post-project assessments to determine the efficiency of the programmes.
8. Improve judicial process by allowing promoted judges to complete pending cases in their new positions.
9. Revive the Executive-Legislative Conference/Tripartite meeting to discuss pre-budget issues ahead of time.
10. Policies and Priorities of the renewed Hope Agenda
11. Reform of the economy to deliver sustained inclusive growth.
12. Reform tariff structure to enable trade while supporting domestic production.
13. Incorporate more equity financing rather than debt financing for fiscal operations.
14. Ensure the annual budget is aligned with strategic priorities.
15. Review the implication of forward contract on the economy.
16. Set up a steering committee to review the issues around the national single window.
17. Strengthen national security for peace and prosperity.
18. Intensify efforts to block revenue leakages in the police force.
19. Engage with Governors to strengthen security at local government levels while addressing issues of autonomy and governance.
20. Have a collaborative and collective approach at the State level to address security challenges in collaboration with Federal Government.
21. Develop and facilitate effective information gathering and sharing mechanisms between and among states, communities and federal government.
22. Prioritise the clean-up of Ogoni communities.
23. Boost agriculture to achieve food security.
24. Utilise technology to increase agricultural yield.
25. Intensify effort to reduce post-harvest losses by driving investments into storage and value addition.
26. Embark on efforts to check coastal erosion.
27. Enhance dry season farming and promote commercial livestock farming.
28. Unlock energy and natural resources for sustainable development.
29. Develop a 10-year plan to increase power generation capacity in line with the country’s needs.
30. Set up a super grid in line with the nation’s generation targets and create semi-autonomous regional grids.
31. Overhaul the structure and coverage of the distribution companies.
32. Revitalise a road map for the steel industry.
33. Revive power plant projects that have been previously paused, including Ajaokuta Steel Plant.
34. Engage with OPEC to increase Nigeria’s crude oil production quota.
35. Drive investments into the upstream petroleum sector, with clear targets while making provisions for sanctions for non-performance and inefficiencies.
36. Focus on education and health development as essential pillars of development.
37. Open up the Sports sector for business by attracting infrastructure, incentives and investments.
38. Accelerate the attainment of universal coverage.
39. Foster grassroots efforts to prevent and mitigate humanitarian crises.
40. Improve governance for effective service delivery.
41. Improve capacity by training civil servants in critical areas aligned with strategic priorities.
42. Institute stepwise digitalisation of all the MDAs in government.
43. Invest in technology to save cost, time and reduce corruption.
44. Ensure merit is the basis of the inclusivity priority.
45. Ensure civil servants get competitive compensation.
46. Roll out official emails for all civil servants above a particular level.
47. Performance management to enable delivery and execution.
48. Institute consequence management at all levels.
49. Establish performance-based compensation for civil servants tied to appraisal and without interferences.
50. Ensure every ministry, department and agency (MDA) defines targets for investment attraction.

MATTERS ARISING FROM THE RETREAT

The idea of the retreat is a welcome development. The theme of the retreat is very relevant as it resonates with the campaign promise of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. We have documented elsewhere that it is well recognized all over the world that politicians make grand political statements and sweeping promises during campaigns which are difficult to implement while in government.[i] This is why the former governor of New York Mario Cuomo made that famous statement: “You campaign in poetry and govern in prose”. It is therefore incumbent on every new government to devise strategies on how to turn the campaign promises into reality.

The theme of renewed hope which was the campaign theme of the President resonates with the people because Nigerians have had their hopes consistently dashed since return to civil rule in 1999. The enthusiasm that greeted the emergence of Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999 was dashed because the economic growth witnessed during his tenure was not accompanied with reduction of poverty or improvement in the standard of living of the people. The hope that followed the emergence of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was shortlived by the open display of corruption during his administration. The hope of change promised by Buhari was dashed by his lackadaisical attitude to governance.  Renewed Hope is therefore an appropriate catch phrase for Nigerians.

Furthermore, the recommendations emanating from the retreat are relevant and deal with the challenges of governance and service delivery in Nigeria. But there are some gaps which the government must address to deliver the dividends of democracy to the people. First and foremost is that the retreat should have come earlier. The idea of hit the ground running presupposes that government will quickly put a strategy  and plan in place and organise the machinery of government and make budgetary allocations to deliver goods and services to the people. But it is better late than never.

Secondly, there should have been discussion about an overarching development strategy from which sectorial strategies will be drawn. Already the departing Buhari Administration developed the Nigeria Agenda 2050 and the National Development Plan. The Tinubu administration should quickly review the plans and align them to the administration’s vision, goal and priorities. The piecemeal approach will not be helpful. For instance, allowing promoted judges to complete pending cases on their new positions is not the only thing required for judicial reform. Clean-up of Ogoniland and coastal erosion are not the only issues of environmental degradation in the country. There are other parts of the Niger Delta whose degradation is worse than Ogoni land. There are parts of the country suffering from serious air pollution and desertification. What is needed is an overarching strategy from which sectoral strategies will be developed.

Thirdly, the country needs a process for filtering policy ideas for the government. It is dangerous for a country to get policy ideas from only politically appointed advisers and Politicians. The policy process occupies a central position in the functioning of modern-day government. Public policies are developed by officials within institutions of government to address problems confronting citizens. It is through policies that the government translates its political vision into programmes and actions to deliver the desired change. The neglect of policy making, execution and evaluation produced a situation where there is low institutional capacity to develop, execute and evaluate sound policies. However, the importance of sound policies in service delivery and socio-economic development cannot be over emphasized. Development theory and practice indicates that all the countries that have made significant progress in the last 30 years have relied on the willingness and ability to make sound policies. Examples include China, Chile, Brazil, India, Mauritius, Malaysia and Botswana. Unfortunately, Nigeria is one of the few countries in the world where the government has no think tank. The governing party has no think tank. The think tank of the opposition party is comatose. In the past, the Federal Government used to have a think tank called Independent Policy Group in the 2000s. As country Director of ActionAid, I was regularly invited whenever issues of poverty eradication are discussed. The Federal Government should  set up a Presidential think tank. The government think tank will provide policy analysis to the Presidency, Senior Policy makers and help to develop communication strategies to inform the public on government policies. The idea of flying the kite and relying on public opinion as seen in the case of the Conditional Cash Transfer of eight thousand naira to the poor will be counterproductive.

Fourthly, the government needs to address the issue of co-ordination among the agencies, co-ordination with other arms of government and co-ordination with subnational levels of government at the State and Local Government levels.

Furthermore, the government needs to address the issue of gender and social inclusion. Although there is a Gender Policy that provided for a 35 percent affirmative action for involvement of women in governance since 2006, the policy is observed in breach. This led Nigerian women to go to court. On 6^th April, 2022 judgement was delivered in favour of Nigerian women granting them 35 percent affirmative action on appointments. But the Attorney General of the Federation has appealed against the judgement. Similarly, although the Disability Act has been passed and the Disability Commission established, there appears to be no national urgency to sanction discrimination against persons with disabilities; provide access to public premises and buildings; roads; sidewalks and special facilities; right to free education; inclusiveness in education and other beautiful provisions of the Act. It is only through inclusive planning and affirmative measures that these challenges can be addressed. The Federal Government should have a clear strategy to address gender and social inclusion issues in Nigeria.

Moreover, there is an issue that the Federal Government has ignored since return to civil rule in 1999. Despite the recognition of challenges in the political arena and political culture of violence, monetisation of politics and credibility of elections, there is no national strategy to address it. Previous development agendas and plans such as transformation agenda and economic recovery and growth plan (ERGP) focus on economic issues to the exclusion of political reform. There is the need for the Federal Government to have a political reform programme incorporated in the overarching development strategy.

In addition, there are many inherited problems from previous administration that the Government must have a clear strategy to address. The first is the revenue problem. There are many revenue generating MDAs that are not remitting to the national coffers. The MDAs involved are well documented in the Auditor General’s Annual Report and NEITI Audit reports. There are many other areas with huge potential for revenue generation such as the mineral sector and the maritime sector which need to be fully tapped. The second is the issue of corruption. During the Buhari administration, although the President set the tone at the top, the conduct of other government officials was at variance to the tone set at the top. The previous government also joined the Open Government Partnership (OGP) which was a commendable move. Meanwhile, there are several pending high profile cases with little progress in terms of prosecution. The Tinubu administration must make a clear statement at the top on anti-corruption and the strategy that the government will use. Another key issue is citizen engagement. On return to civil rule in 1999, civil society was engaged in increasing measures. Civil society representatives were included in some constitutional and legal bodies such as the Police Service Commission and NEITI. President Olusegun Obasanjo had summit exclusively with civil society. President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan had summit with civil society. But Buhari’s eight years saw the decline in engagement of civil society. There is the need for the Tinubu administration to re-engage civil society actively. Finally, the Tinubu administration must establish itself as a progressive government with philosophy of social democracy.  A progressive government must prioritise the welfare and security of the citizenry above capital. A progressive government must clearly recognise the role and intervention of government in the development process to protect the weak and vulnerable from the vagaries of the market. A progressive government must wage war against grand corruption. A progressive government must deliberately formulate policies and programmes to favour the poor such as public schools, public hospitals, rural electrification, social protection and social housing. A progressive government must recognise the place of women in governance and development and implement political and economic empowerment programmes.

Finally, the Tinubu administration must recognise that there are recurrent  challenges facing Nigeria over the years. These are also the same issues that previous administrations have tried to address. These are the issues that all the political parties have promised to address. So, the challenge has never been identification of these problems. The challenge has been that there are other issues which must be addressed before the issues can be addressed. These are the issues which prevented successive administrations from addressing the issues effectively. The problems of insecurity, mismanagement of the economy, decline in agriculture, inadequate power in spite of humongous resources pumped into the sector over the years, corruption in the oil and gas sector, poor transport system, falling standards of education and poor health care are symptoms caused by the underlying issues that have led to progressive degeneration of governance and public services. Therefore, the real issues that should be the priority agenda of the Tinubu administration are what should be focused upon to reverse the trend and tackle the symptoms.

-To be continued

Dr. Igbuzor is the Founding Executive Director, African Centre for Leadership, Strategy & Development (Centre LSD), Wrote from Abuja. E-mail: Otive.Igbuzor@centrelsd.org

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