Federal government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) headed by productive, scrupulous result-oriented public officials, such as the type desired by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is an important, first-order input for effective public service delivery and broader economic gains.
However, acquiring this governmental setup is a challenge and requires systematic, evidence-based reforms with the natural place to start being the selection and or appointment of public officials charged with the responsibilities of delivering public services.
It was with this conviction that the President, this week, charged ministers, presidential aides, permanent secretaries and top government functionaries to perform optimally or lose their jobs.
Speaking at the opening session of a three-day 2023 Cabinet Retreat with a theme: “Delivering on the Renewed Hope Agenda,” which was held at the State House in Abuja, the President said government officials that fail to live up to expectations would be sacked.
He said all top government functionaries would sign a performance bond that would clearly state his administration’s goals and went further to announce that the government has set up a Results Delivery Unit headed by his Special Adviser on Policy and Coordination, Ms Hadiza Bala Usman, which mandate is to coordinate and review the performance of public officials.
“You have the opportunity to change things. Recently, we received the Chancellor of the Republic of Germany and his delegation of investors. One of their key complaints and the question is whether they can bring their capital, repatriate their dividend, or if not satisfied, take their capital away,” the President said. “The Minister of Trade and Investment was called upon by me to explain further, that those obstacles are gone, never to come back again. We are open for business.” The President said that at the end of the three-day retreat, his ministers will sign a bond of understanding between them, the Permanent Secretaries and himself.
“If you are performing, nothing to fear; if you miss the objective, we’ll review; if no performance, you leave us,” he said. “No one is an island and the buck stops on my desk. I assure you you have a free hand, you must be intellectually inquisitive to ask how, why, when and why it must be immediate. You have a responsibility to serve the people…. This is our country we have to build it, we have to renew the foundation. We have to give hope to the populace, to Nigerians in doubt whether democracy and economic growth will be the pathway to their prosperity.”
The President warned the appointees against constituting themselves as clogged in the will of Nigeria’s progress. “Let us look forward, let us be determined that corruption will go, progress will be achieved,” he added.
Realistically speaking, the President said that under his leadership, the economy would be transformed to work for millions of Nigerians“We must take 50 million people out of poverty. We must build healthcare that works for all,” he said. “Look around don’t be wicked. Look at the standard of education. Look at the classrooms, look at the roads.”
The President stressed the need for ministers to be focused on their work and initiate bold measures to help the administration turn the nation’s population into an asset as, according to him, Nigeria possess great talents which if harnessed will be to the benefit of Africa.
“We have challenges… South and North of Nigeria are battered, we’ve all seen such. You have desert encroachment in the North but we are still blessed with arable lands. We can do it, we can build our country. It is not about the theoreticians, it is about practical determinations and focus evaluation,” he said. “Yes it is our country, we have no other one. Let’s be proud that we are Nigerians, that we can do it, you can show leadership. We can fight to make democracy a lasting reference for the rest of Africa.”
Delving into the roots of crisis in the civil service, the president calls on the need for civil servants to cooperate with ministers to form a formidable team for the good of the country.
He said: “As I’ve stated before, no one succeeds alone. You the civil servants, you must not see a minister as he or she will come and go and you will be there. You must make a positive team for the good of this country…. you are in this ship you will make good of it but not wreck it. You are a member of a great family don’t see that minister as opportunistic. A great Nigeria is possible and a greater Nigeria will come under your commitment, guidance and resolute determination to give the country a direction.”
The President instructively said, and the ministers must take note, that he is determined to succeed by all means necessary. “We can do it, we can show leadership, we can fight to make democracy a lasting reference for the rest of Africa,” he pointed out. “Don’t be afraid to take decisions but don’t be antagonistic to your supervisor. If they are wrong, debate it. As the President, I can make mistakes, point it to me I would resolve that conflict, that error, perfection is only that of God Almighty. But you are there to help me succeed. The success I must achieve by all means necessary. We have great minds, great intellectuals, great intellects and all that we need.”
In a nutshell, the President, as far as the humility and tactics and strategies needed for delivering good governance are concerned, had, in his speech, nailed them all together. Typical government departments are characterised by flexible and ready-to-learn bureaucracies which make implementing incentives and changing a status quo easy.
As the President has pointed out, in this environment of inertia, where even the intrinsically motivated can lose enthusiasm, driving change may require more innovative solutions from the civil servants and appointed officials.
Therefore, it is hoped that at the end of the retreat today, officials will become re-energised, rediscover their motivation for public service and establish connections with fellow public officials to drive improved performance. While this is in the process of being evaluated, ideas born out of the retreat could improve worker productivity without disrupting existing institutions and entrenched interests
Technology can improve service delivery by supplementing government officials’ work and obviating opportunities for corruption. In India, biometric authentication in programme delivery significantly reduced corruption in Andhra Pradesh by ensuring the right beneficiaries received the right benefits. Similarly, an electronic fund-flow reform in Bihar, which directly transferred money from the state to field level officers decreased corruption and improved programme efficiency.
Implementation of any new technology has technical, logistical and political challenges – that can be overcome by pushing for policy reforms based on evidence from approaches that have been found effective.
The productivity of ministers is a major public management problem that can be addressed by simultaneously improving the process of appointing ministers, enforcing incentives to reward performance or finding other ways to motivate ministers and leveraging technology to streamline delivery.
Ultimately, a system of properly evaluating the performance of public officials requires changing a deep-rooted status quo – this needs strong political will along with the willingness especially the President to continuously test and evaluate ideas and how they are implemented.