Confronted with dwindling resources amidst determination to deliver on its campaign promises, the Simon Lalong administration recently held a retreat for the executive arm in an effort to articulate a ‘rescue’ document that will cast a template of the government’s programmes and policy direction. UKANDI ODEY reviews the three-day exercise which was like the Town drawing from the Gown to steer its course
With a sober, solemn, and captivating theme of “Delivering effective service in an era of dwindling resources”, it cannot be argued that, in both context and circumstance, the retreat was well-conceived and well-intentioned. Held in collaboration with the German International Corporation, GIZ, the government also considered and described the event as “strategic”, indicating the critical and prefatory role it would play in ushering the relatively new executive to its duties and routines, and generate the necessary synergy that will propel the machinery of government towards matching programme contents and objectives with projects and results.
Speaking during the opening ceremony, an elated Governor Lalong could not be less punctilious when he noted that “the Rescue administration in the state is taking one more step in her match towards bequeathing a durable and virile state to the next generation”.
On the modality for such legacy which also explained the expediency and circumstantial necessity of the retreat, Lalong quipped further: “this we believe can only be achieved as we pursue the accomplishments of the goals we have set out to achieve within the duration of our term in office.
“Our success is a function of how informed we are of the policies, programmes and action plans of government, coupled with our ability to interpret and translate them into tangible deliverables for our people”.
Elucidating further on the knowledge demands for the success of the administration, Lalong told the participants that “the tangible and progressive development we seek demands continuous knowledge-driven action which saves cost and maximizes opportunities”.
He also hinged the context on the realization that “our economic challenges have compelled us to see ahead, look ahead, prepare ahead, and be ahead, if ever we sincerely desire to make the kind of positive impact we seek to make in our sincere bid to make lighter the burden of existence for all our citizens”.
The primary challenge of the retreat was to get the executive team to factor into a dream and share in the vision that crystallizes the five-pillar policy fulcrum of the administration. This much Lalong emphasized in his opening address: “you will recall that this administration unfolded a five-policy thrust that will guide the plans, programmes and actions of government within the four-year term of our administration…I will urge you all to begin a process of critical thinking on the quick fixes that would make you hit the ground running”.
The planners, to meet the objective set, drew an expansive seminar curriculum and case studies which touched on vital areas of public administration and the peculiarities of the Plateau politico-economic sociology and environment. With lecture topics ranging from thematic address to issues such as ‘the executive council as the driver of policy implementation’, ‘legislature and executive partnership for effective performance’, ‘good governance as panacea for development’, ‘understanding the policy thrust of the Rescue Agenda’, ‘peace and security as bedrock of development’, and ‘financing state development in an era of declining federal allocation’, it was actually three days of rigorous brainstorming as the time table for the sessions revealed a tight schedule that terminated each day by 8pm.
There was also a retainership of high profile and well- travelled resource persons from varied and various walks of life.
On call were the Catholic Archbishop of Sokoto Diocese, Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah, Anglican Bishop of Jos Archdiocese, Bishop Benjamin Kwashi, Secretary-general of Jama’atu Nasri Islam, JNI, Dr Khalid Aliyu, Minister of works, power, and housing, Babatunde Fashola,SAN, Minister of transport, Rotimi Amaechi, Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Jos, Professor Clement Dakas, Director-general, Research, Government House, Jos, Professor John Wade, Director, Jos Business School, Ezekiel Gomos, and Director, corporate communications, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, Yakubu Dati, etc.
Upon his inauguration as governor of Plateau state on the May29, 2015, Lalong was quick to identify and reduce areas of priority and primary focus of his administration to five basics, hence the five-policy thrust of the government. The first policy places premium on peace, security, and good governance. For book keepers maintaining a diary on Plateau affairs in recent years, it is arguable that the twin issue of peace and security have not dominated contemporary discourse and literature emanating from the state. Thus making it a peg of good governance is like opportunity and preparedness co-occurring to determine luck. Given that the sentiments and tempers that overheat the state’s political spectrum and degenerate from time to time and spark crises in different parts of the state have not been adequately disenabled, it is only responsive and dutiful for a government to keep a tab on the sensitivities thereto in order to moderate their dynamics and forestall a drift to jaw-jawing and possibly war.
Secondly, Lalong’s five-policy thrust also highlights human capital development and social welfare. When the chips are down, the plans to revamp the educational sub-sector and remedy its abysmal national rating in recent times, belongs here. The first move in that direction was to appoint the state deputy governor, Professor Soni Tyoden, as commissioner for education (tertiary). Understandably, this also has to do with getting the state work force or the civil service to be virile as the catalyst in the implementation of the government policies and development programmes.
It will entail providing the civil servants with a conducive or ideal work environment that is motivating and encourages dedication, commitment, hard work and productivity. Lalong should actually know this well and work to break a jinx. In 2007, when Lalong was fading out of government as Speaker of the State House of Assembly, the state civil servants were on strike; and eventually frustrated the outgoing government out of power. Eight years later, in 2015, when Lalong was zooming back to power as governor, the same civil servants were on another ‘seasonal’ strike to boo the out-going government into oblivion, and woo the in-coming government into a new deal.
The policy of human capital development and social welfare is intrinsic and intricately located, and the end will tell how the retreat helped to manage the gauge and break new grounds.
Agriculture and rural development, which is the third ground of special focus and concentration by Lalong’s reckoning, is like pleading the obvious – the state is visibly agrarian, and any government that fails to promote and consolidate that sector may have
misplaced its priorities. With what the state has invested in that sector in aggregate terms, from the era of Dariye to the attempts by the Jang administration to revolutionize and push the sector to the stage of popular mechanization and mass production, genuine and
concentrated efforts by the Lalong administration will consolidate and expand the state’s rich agricultural profile. It is worthwhile however that as the government gives this sector special concern, there should also be a deliberate policy on how to take care of mass produce in
terms of distribution, packaging, and marketing. Establishment of cottage industries that utilize most of these agricultural produce should be part of the backward integration economics of the Lalong administration to really take agricultural revolution in the state to an enduring level.
Ditto for its corollary which is rural development: growth and expansion of agricultural activities should go in tandem with rural development with direct implications for the construction of roads and opening up of the hinterland for markets, commerce, investments,
mobility and availability of labour and expatriate services to thrive.
Policy number four is bold about industrialisation. This indicates a deliberate plan to service the state’s business portfolio, and up its potentials from a mere agrarian destination to a manufacturing and exporting state. It has the invaluable advantage of wealth and employment creation, and reducing poverty and waste of local produce. Unfortunately, the retreat curriculum did not give this desideratum the attention and details it desires.
Except for the aspect of environment which subsumes sanitation and general environmental watch against diseases and pestilences, physical infrastructure as mentioned in policy number five is either ambiguous or unnecessary, as it resonates especially in the policies of good governance, social welfare, and rural development: except if Lalong intends it to restrictively translate as urban development.
However, the more charitable thing is that Lalong is not abandoning the projects begun by his predecessor.
At the end of the retreat, the participants were agreed that the exercise was a necessary and vital take-off point. This consensus was captured in a communiqué issued at the close of the event.
The eight-point resolutions summarily reflected the zeal with which the participants returned from the programme to their duty posts, ready to work and share the vision of the governor as encapsulated in the policy thrust. The communiqué noted in part that “in view of the dwindling resources from the federation account, government agencies must look inward to expand the sources and amount of Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, of the state”.
The communiqué also quipped to the effect that “education, agriculture, and health sectors which are key elements to the development of the state and welfare of the people have been neglected for long, and a total overhaul is imperative”, with a promise that “government will continue to partner with, and support all relevant security agencies, NGOs, and communities involved in peace building process in the state”.
In a bond or expression of collectivism, the participants swore to three grounds dubbed ‘Rescue Team Declaration 2016’, part of which reads: “that we, members of the Plateau State executive council will be committed to , and be driven by the fear of God, accountability, integrity, innovation, and harmonious co-existence of our people”. The declaration also reflected that ‘we, members of the state executive council, will remain focused on the development of the state in line with the 5-point policy thrust of the Rescue administration”.
In a post-Retreat chat, the commissioner for lands and survey, Barrister Festus Fantir admitted that the retreat has further bolstered his zeal to serve, and to work very hard to see that the government delivers on its promises. He said he will immediately pay attention to the Plateau Geographic Information System, PLAGIS, project, to ensure that processes and procedures regarding land administration are expedited, rather than allow sluggish treatment of outstanding matters to deter the progress and positive impact that this administration intends to make on the people.
Similarly, the commissioner for special duties, Honourable Hitler Dadi, has also been upbeat about the outcome of the retreat, and expressed gratitude to the governor for conceiving the idea, and for choosing to begin that way with the new executive council. Hitler said the retreat helped to instil a family ethos in the entire executive council members; and that they all rose from the retreat happy, energised, charged, and determined to work for the good of the state.
Extending the same warmth and appreciation to the GIZ, and other facilitators of the programme, Hitler also expressed the view that, having started by seeking the instrument of knowledge to drive the administration and its implementation of policies, there is no doubt that Governor Lalong is determined and ready to take Plateau state to the desired level.
Speaking during the closing ceremony, Governor Lalong, sounding boisterous and accomplished, said “this day has brought us to the close of the re-examination and re-evaluation of the issues that bother us as a people on the Plateau for which as collaborators in the wheel of progress we must address”. Lalong celebrated and reminisced further that “this retreat has no doubt allowed us to acquire the necessary skills required in our responsibility of effective service delivery, especially at a moment when Plateau state and Nigeria at large is facing tough economic challenges”.
