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President
Muhammadu Buhari addressing ministers before their swearing-in in Council Chambers, Aso Villa
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President Muhammadu
Buhari has set target for his ministers, according to The Punch report. Buhari had, on
Wednesday, administered oaths of office on 36 ministers whose appointments had
earlier been confirmed by the Senate. After assigning portfolios to them, the President
presided over his first Federal Executive Council meeting where he told the
ministers to see their appointments as a call to duty.
A
top government official told our correspondent on Friday that the President
expects the ministers to be on the same page with him in his bid to deliver on
the promises he made to Nigerians.
He
said the President would be assessing the ministers’ performance personally and
through the Office of the Chief of Staff.
The Punch report continues:
Part of the criteria to be used would include
adherence to the party manifesto on deliverables; adherence to financial
regulations/ prudence in the management of human and material resources, as
well as level of budget implementation.
The
source said, “The ministers cannot afford to go on honeymoon. The President is
monitoring and assessing them. They will be fooling themselves if they claim
ignorance of this. The
truth is that the expectation is high and the ministers must key into this
administration’s mission quickly.”
The
Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina,
confirmed that Buhari would evaluate ministers’ performance.
Adesina
said if one did not monitor, one could not evaluate.
He
said, “The President will definitely assess the ministers’ performance. When
you don’t monitor, you cannot evaluate. It
makes sense to expect the President to evaluate them because there are
deliverables.”
Asked
what Buhari would be laying emphasis on while evaluating the ministers, the
presidential spokesman said, “The President had told the ministers at the
presidential retreat organized for them that this administration would be
judged by the number of Nigerians pulled out of poverty. This is one of the
focuses of the government.
“The
ministers will be assessed based on the set goals of this administration.”
Buhari
had at the opening of the two-day retreat organized by the Office of the
Secretary to the Government while describing the work of restoration and
renewal as urgent and immense, said Nigerians’ expectations were high.
He
added that government officials’ determination to succeed and change the
fortunes of the country must be equal to the challenge.
“Our
economic focus will be policies that will ensure inclusive growth and we will
count our achievements based on the number of Nigerians we move out of
poverty,” the President had said. The President is also said to be keeping
faith with the APC manifesto in dealing with the myriad of problems facing the
nation.
On
agriculture and food security, the 29 paged party manifesto says the All
Progressives Congress-led administration will embark on a massive and
comprehensive re-organization and revolutionalization of the agricultural
industry.
The
objective, it adds, is to sustain agriculture as the strategic engine and
prime-mover of national economic development to feed the nation; to supply the
raw material for industrial processing and manufacturing; and to earn stable
remunerative prices in the local and international market.
Incidentally,
the Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh, played a key role in drafting
the document.
In
the area of power supply, the APC promised to vigorously pursue the expansion
of electricity generation and distribution of up to 40,000 megawatts in four to
eight years.
It
also says the party will work assiduously at making available power from
renewable energy sources such as coal solar, wind and biomass for domestic and
industrial use, whenever these prove viable.
To
deal with the challenges in the transportation sector, the party promised to
revamp the railways, waterways and road transportation noting that these are
key to economic growth and development.
In
the area of mineral and steel development, the party said, it will invest
heavily in the abundant solid mineral resources in all parts of Nigeria in a
bid to create jobs, alleviate poverty and provide critical infrastructure.
For
education sector to develop, the manifesto says the APC in government will,
after carrying out a thorough review of the education sector and having
established the main causes of the sector’s terrible decline, fully implement
and enforce the provisions of the Universal Basic Education Act with emphasis
on gender equity in primary and secondary school enrolment whilst improving the
quality and substance of our schools.
It
also promised to reinstate the now abandoned Teacher Teaching Colleges to train
teachers, target up to 10 per cent of our annual budget for the sector whilst
making substantial investments in training programmes at all levels of the
educational system, re-introduce Technical and vocational education nationwide.
The
party also promised to provide adequate material support to such institutions, energize
the inspectorate divisions of education ministries nationwide, and offer free
and qualitative primary and secondary education to all but to tertiary level
for women among others. To tackle challenges in the health sector, it hopes to rationalize
health care delivery through conscious efforts to enhance primary health care
facilities across Nigeria and reduce costs and unnecessary pressure on
secondary/tertiary health care facilities and increases the quality of all
Federal Government owned hospitals to world class standard within five years.
The
document also declares the APC’s readiness to provide free ante-natal care for
pregnant women, free health care for babies and children up to school age and
for the aged and free treatment for those afflicted with infectious disease
such as tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS and to boost the local manufacture of 70 per
cent of pharmaceuticals and make drugs for HIV/AIDS available.
According
to the document, the APC-led administration will also vigorously pursue,
promote and accelerate sector’s economic and social development through industrialization
to create jobs, wealth and reduce poverty.
The
APC manifesto equally highlights the party’s programmes under the following
sub-headings: Guiding Economic Policy; Jobs and the Economy; Oil and Gas
Industry; Environment; Housing; Human Rights; Women and Gender Issues; Mass
Media and Labour; Local Government System; The Niger Delta; Political Violence;
Persons Living with Disability; Prisons Service and Corrections; Foreign Policy
and International Relations; National Security and Defence; Politics and
Governance; Conflict Resolution, National Unity and Social Harmony; Senior
Citizens, Youths, Sports And Culture as well as Code of Conduct and Policy
Conferences.
It
will be recalled that former President Goodluck Jonathan had on August 22, 2012
made his ministers to sign what he called performance contracts.
The
contracts were prepared by the National Planning Commission and they contained
benchmark performance indicators by which each minister was monitored, assessed
and evaluated in respect of the implementation of the former President’s
Transformational Agenda.
Heads of departments and
agencies under each ministry also signed portions of the performance contract
with their ministers.
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