By Omoniyi Salaudeen
“Those who desire to reach and keep their places at the top in their calling must be prepared to do so the hard way,” Chief Obafemi Awolowo had said.
Though the age-long exhortation by the late Premier of the old Western Region, has a general relevance, it particularly exemplifies the current challenges before the cabinet members of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who have been made to sign performance bond to leverage the delivery of deliverables within the shortest possible time.
To be clear, it is not a common practice in this clime for a government to carry out a routine performance evaluation of public functionaries for openness, transparency, and effective service delivery.
And it is part of the bane of maladministration and the vicious circle of bad leadership that has accounted for the underdevelopment of the country.
Recently, the nation had the worst experience of arbitrary governance during the immediate past regime of former President Muhammadu Buhari when ministers and heads of departments, agencies, and parastatals behaved as if they were an Island themselves. They capitalised on the seemingly lackluster attitude of the President who appointed them and willfully ignored the standard rules of engagement without any consequence or a sense of responsibility to the public.
Even where there was a clear lack of capacity and requisite knowledge to manage some critical ministries, Buhari kept them on the job for eight years and didn’t deem it fit to look into their records of performance.
A particular case in point was the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, who had to declare at the twilight of the administration that he knew nothing about managing the ministry.
For the unfortunate scenario of being under a carefree president for so long, it will take a long while for the country to recover from the negative consequences of the abysmal performance of the administration on all fronts. The education sector, especially the tertiary level, is the worst affected.
This time around, there is a new thinking about how to track the performance of those assigned to manage public office. In what one may describe as a paradigm shift, President Tinubu recently ensured that all his ministerial appointees signed a performance bond which they hope to leverage to impact the lives of Nigerians within the shortest possible time. The bond was signed after a three-day cabinet retreat for ministers, presidential aides, permanent secretaries, and top government functionaries organized by the presidency, with the theme: “Delivering on the Renewed Hope Agenda.”
Tinubu challenged the ministers to do everything within their powers to change the narrative, stressing that “we have a responsibility to change the narrative” and “navigate the ship out of poverty.
“Poverty is not a shameful thing, but it’s not acceptable. It’s left for you and me to navigate this ship out of poverty. We have gathered here to shape the future; no doubt about it. We are the hope and aspirations of many Nigerians. Let’s go out there; let’s bond together and make sure our country is fully recovered from elephantiasis.
“We must put aside personal ambitions and focus on the progress of our nation. I am proud standing before you. I am proud of myself; I contested the election, I won; they took me to court, I won.”
Unlike the immediate past experience where government functionaries worked at cross purposes due to a lack of coordination, Tinubu now has a Special Adviser on Policy Coordination to ensure that all activities of ministries, departments, and agencies align with the policy objectives of the new administration.
The bearer of the new office, Hadiza Bala Usman, while elucidating on the reason for the sharp departure from the past, said that the Federal Government had put motions in place for proper supervision and periodic assessment of cabinet ministers and agencies.
She disclosed that there would be quarterly assessments of ministries from January 2024, having ensured that the ministers signed a performance bond with the president. She also said there had been ongoing conversations and sessions with ministries and agencies to clarify their deliverables.
According to Usman, the bond will contain some key performance indicators (KPIs) that will be reviewed quarterly. She added that the bond will also come with a consequence management framework for the appointees.
She said: “The role of my office is to ensure that there is coordination across ministries, departments, and agencies. We have effectively commenced our work.
“We have to look to see that while there are policy deployments across MDAs, there is also an understanding of the respective deliverables expected of the MDAs of the government.
“You are going to see a huge difference in President Tinubu’s approach towards ensuring his appointed adhere to the key performance indicators that he is giving them.
“We are looking to commence an assessment of the respective ministers in January 2024. We are going to have quarterly assessments of performance which will culminate in an annual scorecard.”
Meanwhile, the Senate has passed the 2024-2026 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP), with a borrowing plan of N7.8 trillion for 2024, a N9 trillion deficit, and Federal Government total expenditure of N26 trillion.
The passage of the document by the Red Chamber followed the House of Representatives’ approval of the 2024-2026 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP).
The joint committee chaired by Senator Musa Sani observed that a significant number of the Federal Government’s revenue-generating agencies engaged in arbitrary, frivolous, and extra-budgetary expenditure and recommended that a review of the laws of all revenue-generating agencies be carried out.
The National Assembly was also mandated to begin the process of amending the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA, 2007) in order to enhance the agencies’ ability to enforce fiscal responsibility and impose sanctions on erring corporations.
What this implies is that from both sides of the executive and legislature, it is no longer going to be business as usual for ministers and heads of agencies. The next fiscal year will be a litmus test for the new policy direction.
Following the signing of the performance bond, some ministers have already commenced a review of the operational guidelines of their respective ministries, ready to hit the ground running with frenetic energy. For instance, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr Festus Keyamo (SAN), recently read the riot act to the aviation agencies, threatening to sack the heads of aviation agencies who might not meet up with the Key Performance Index (KPI) of the government.
Keyamo spoke in Lagos at the one-day stakeholders’ meeting, the first to be held since he assumed office, stating that he had signed a performance bond with President Bola Tinubu, alongside other ministers of the federation, and that he was under obligation to perform.
He said: “We had a three-day retreat with Mr. President, all the ministers. At the end of the day, we signed a performance bond. I also signed my performance bond yesterday (Friday). So, if you don’t want me to get sacked in the next few months, you need to support me.
“On this side, it is either I get sacked or they get sacked. So, it is a race to who will survive. That’s what I have told all my CEOs, somebody must die first, but before I die, I will take you down.”
Prof Tayo Bello, a lawyer and development economist, at Adeleke University, Ede, Osun State, while giving his perspective of the matter, maintained that the situation of the country made it imperative for the ministers to be accountable to the people and to the president who appointed them.
He noted that Buhari failed to hold his ministers accountable for their actions and inaction, declaring that “Tinubu has no choice than to compel his appointees to do the needful.”
He argued: “You cannot compare President Tinubu with Buhari. It is another ballgame entirely. Buhari was not in charge at all. There is no way you can appoint people who are not accountable to the people and accountable to you. You remember the statement he (Buhari) made when he was being sworn in that “I am for nobody and I am for everybody. That was why people just kept quiet about whatever he did.
“My concern is that the people who are now talking about performance are part and parcel of that bad regime. Tinubu definitely has no choice, but to compel his appointees to do the needful because there are lots of problems on the ground for him to solve. You recall that the National Security Adviser (NSA), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, recently said that Buhari left a bankrupt economy. Borrowing even became unprecedented during his regime.
“So, if Tinubu wants to achieve something that will address the hardship caused by the subsidy removal, he must perform.
“During the era of Buhari, there was no coordinating minister. Now, Wale Edun, who is the Minister of Finance, is the coordinating minister. It means everything has to be routed through the Minister of Finance to the president. Buhari did not do that.
“Recently, the monetary policy rate was amended from 18.5 to 18.75 per cent. Monetary policy is the benchmark of how CBN controls commercial banks. It is through the monetary policy that they determine the lending rate. Currently, the inflationary rate is very terrible. I believe that making the ministers to be accountable is the right way to go. They did it during former President Olusegun Obasanjo when all ministers were asked to sign their letters of resignation before they assumed office.
“You must have heard of naira scarcity. It is a deliberate policy of the CBN to mop up excess currency from the economy to reduce inflation through the statutory ratio and the bank rates. I think it is better that the ministers are made to be accountable and to do the needful.
“Look at what the Minister of Interior recently did when he visited the immigration office unannounced and found the immigration officers doing nonsense and took action immediately. Not only that, I understand that you can now get a passport through an online application within three days.
“Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo, also made it known to all the managing directors and directors of agencies under his aviation ministry that he would rather sack them than him losing his job. If they all work well, Nigeria will gradually overcome its challenges. The situation is so terrible now that people can no longer eat.”
Similarly, a former member of the National Assembly and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Anthony Adeniyi, in his submission on the matter, noted that former President Buhari had some inherent problems that resulted in maladministration and bad policies, assuring that there would be no excuse for non-performance under the current administration of President Tinubu.
His words: “I think President Tinubu deserves to be supported to carry out the implementation of his reforms. All our problems cannot be solved in a day; we should give him the required time to turn things around.
“This time around, nobody is going to give any excuse for poor performance. Tinubu himself said that he went round the country to ask for the job, so nobody should pity him. But people should give him time.
“Already, he is addressing the issue of the economy that was messed up by Godwin Emefiele, the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, by setting up an investigation committee. Patience does it. It is a matter of time, it won’t come immediately. The economy is on the right course. We just need to entertain a little bit of patience.”