Why a Retreat Is Vital for Government Officials and First Timers – Dr. Constance Ikokwu

Join me in this insightful interview as we delve into the key strategies and expectations for impactful governance in Nigeria. President Tinubu has set the stage for cabinet ministers with a strong emphasis on performance, resource management, and environmental conservation. 🌿📊

We discuss the critical importance of effective leadership and management to navigate the diverse interests within the government. Plus, the president’s call for a foundational renewal of Nigeria raises intriguing questions about the future. 🇳🇬

From setting specific KPIs for ministerial positions to fostering trust through transparency and accountability, we explore the building blocks of successful governance. 🗳️💼

Don’t miss this in-depth conversation on the future of Nigeria’s leadership and how it affects every citizen. #NigerianLeadership #Governance #ImpactfulLeadership

All right well for more on President tinubu’s charge to his cabinet ministers on their kpis and how to achieve impactful governance we have political Affairs commentator and arise news analyst Dr constant ikoku joining us live from our Abuja Studio thank you so much uh Dr constant for uh joining us this

Afternoon um it’s uh very clear pleasure to be here yes yes well it’s it’s clear that President ubu uh means business he has made those marching orders to his uh ministers but the question remains will they actually stick to it can he force their feet to the fire in order to make

Sure that they stay on track of these kpis that uh he’s going to be creating for them well that’s a big question I think the starting point is to acknowledge that uh a review or a retreat actually it’s good for ministers and government officials especially for first timers

There are many ministers that are new and have no idea the depth of what is expected of them what to do or where to go so this is usually a good opportunity for them to you know join in team building and then there’s problem solving and the retreat training and

Development Improvement of skills um fostering collaboration between government officials so this is a good start for them and then to your question yes um you have a retreat what do you get out of the retreat I think it’s like uh a gem right it’s like a gemstone that

You Source whether you Source it uh from uh the miners or from dealers so there are several processes that it has to go through so similarly in this there are several processes the issues that they going to be discussed will go through whether it is uh from the beginning of

Trying to cut and polish a jamstone uh categorize it and then prize it and then market and promote it and look for people to buy it so after this Retreat how what are they going to do with the issues that they have already discussed during uh The Retreat there are so many

Wonderful points that the president made when he was delivering his opening address to this uh retreat at attendance and we can talk about that more but I think that um what they do after this will be more important than the actual Retreat well very well said Dr oku now

I’m wondering if you’re comfortable you know with a special advisor and policy coordination hadman been in charge of monitoring the performances of the Ministries departments and agencies because it seems even the president has envested that some of them might have issues working with her what are your thoughts on this

Well it’s the president’s call right um he makes the decisions he picks his appointees there are probably reasons why he decided to pick this particular uh lady a woman to head that department and unit and he doesn’t have to give anybody explanation if he thinks that

The lady is qualified uh then he she gets the position but apart from that it also depends on how she manages her role does she have enough quality ification and experience to manage the different egos that will come into play most times in Nigeria the ministers a lot of them

Are big men so to speak um some of them are former governors mind you they have managed cabinets they have they have manage an entire State they have dealt with several different issues so Hadis abala Usman has to be very smart in the way that she’s able to manage that

Office I think um it’s a big responsibility for her and this is is the first time we’re hearing of this kind of delivery office in the presidency and everybody is expecting and looking forward to see what they have to offer I think I would also want

To sort of delve into some parts of the president’s speech which I think are critical in our discussion you know so uh quickly the president talked about um we are not looking backwards we can’t compare and give excuses I think it’s a good thing to say because when we look

At what has happened in the past administration or even his party the APC there was always a tendency to say oh we inherited a lot of problems uh the pro the the issues are difficult to tackle so you have to give us time there was always that excuse all the time so it’s

Good that the president said that the Box start at my table I I I asked for the job so I’m going to go ahead and do it and then he also talked about we have to renew the foundation of Nigeria a lot of people know president tinu as someone

Who used to be an activist before he came into politics and even when he was in politics as the governor of Lagos State he was one of those that pursued the idea of a sovereign National Conference to discuss the foundation of Nigeria and how to reconstruct and how

To renew it so I hope the president knows what he’s talking about you know is this just a speech or is he ready to go into the issues of the foundation so for instance we’re talking about resource control we’re talking about equitable distribution of resources a state police

Uh rotational presidency all of these are questions that will be raised once he touches this so the issue is that some people you know when they become president they’re already running for second term but if he decides I’m going to run for only one term so that I can

Focus on the basic problems that Nigeria has foundationally and try to turn it around everyone will looking at the president to see if he does this well you’re right it is it is a good uh step in the right direction but just just to brainstorm if if we were given the task

To come up with some specific kpis for some specific key uh ministerial positions what should some of the Baseline uh requirements entail in your opinion well I mean there are people that will be in that office I think it will be staffed if this is a serious business for them staffed adequately and

Uh have people that sort of uh write down or decide the Baseline for the different ministers but I think that I want to go back again to some of the things that the president pulled out he talked about foreign investment uh we know that recently uh the German

Chancellor was here with a team of investors and they signed about $700 billion um agreement with Nigeria for solid mineral exploration I’m saying this because these are some of the things that will come into being what whichever the minister is involved so for instance the minister of solid

Minerals and they talked about Nigeria being at least 90% not explored and the German Chancellor also asked if they’ll be able to repatriate their funds which the president said they will look into I think we have to be careful as Nigerians um when it comes to the exploitation of

Resources we see what is happening in zamar state for instance they’re digging gold and when you go there is so chaotic you would think that it’s a war zone so as we are looking for investors and working with the ministers that will manage this particular um Ministries and

The Investments that will come into B we have to be careful on how we handle everything so that it is to the benefit of Nigeria and I will tie it into one other point that the president made about climate change a lot of the exploration resources have been

Responsible for climate change issues in African countries the industrialization that we see in the develop World affects us hugely so when we are doing this exploration are we mindful of conserving our Earth are we mindful of conserving our our environment he talked about AR arabu lands so at least 68% or 65% of

The arabel land in Africa today and in the world is in Africa uncultivated so there is uh a Scrambler fight to be to get into those arable lands there is also a lot of water resources that we have you know so we have to as a government be really focused on making

Sure that this whatever it is benefit our people and that our environment is not destroyed in the name of making money or in the name of industrialization now Dr oku it’s quite clear that there is a lack of trust between Nigerians and its leaders and also a lack of trust in public

Institutions so I’m wondering if there’s a way this Gap can be narrowed and Nigerians can be actively involved in the monitoring and evaluation of the performance of this ministers is that possible well it is possible I think the the easiest way to narrow the gap of trust between the populace and the

Government is to deliver results actually say something and work to talk do what you have said that you would do we have a record of different governments that come into office and they have good speeches wonderful talks um wonderful Retreats and Gatherings and meetings and at the end of the day a lot

Of the budget is not even administered you know in the different Ministries and you know civil servants were part of the people that were in this Retreat so the question here is um do you have a civil service a 21st century civil service that would deliver on the things that

You need to make progress in your country and and to advance yourself economically are they qualified do they have their right education do they have the right skills these are a lot of issues and a lot of work for the president so if you want to build that

Trust in the first couple of uh years you want to be able to to be working very fast and expediently to make sure that you have results to show at the end of each year or even periodically you you know come up engage with the public

And tell them what you’re doing and they can also see for themselves that this is happening in terms of being engaged in money in what is going on I don’t know how that will pan out or work out but I guess it’s also possible there are a lot

Of young people that can be engaged that can be involved you know people are looking for jobs to do and trained you know to work with different Ministries in order to be part of uh the change process of uh the government all right um transparency accountability and Merit

Merit based leadership these are some of the things that we are looking for uh within uh our leaders and uh those in the house um do you have any more takeaways from what uh president ubu was talking about at the uh Retreat yeah um I think yes there’s some

Other points he said that be assured that this country is one family in one house I think it’s an important point that he makes there uh because in the past or even in the ABC government um we had a president that there with people who did not vote for him like enemies

You know there is a difference between election Aran and election campaigns and then the actual governance when you become president you are president for all Nigerians as he said we are one family but you have to show that we’re actually one family in your appointments

In the way you deal with people in the way you you you deal with different parts of the country so it’s not just about talking about it in the retreat and giving a speech you actually have to work the talk um so I think that’s very important and then also he talked about

Admitting and accepting liability yes I think that’s something that you should basically uh do whether there are liabilities from the from the previous government there’s no need um to there’s no need to make excuses and then he talked about there’s no crime in borrowing yes no there’s no crime in

Borrowing but it depends on what you do with the money that is borrowed are you paying civil servants Sal with the money are you uh paying for debt so this is important if you’re just paying borrowing money to pay debt then that doesn’t make any sense so you have to

Generate more income in order to get out of that cycle that takes us nowhere it talks about we have great minds great intellectuals great intellects that is very correct Nigerians everywhere around the world and even Nigeria have a lot of talents and can help Nigeria the other question is do they have the

Opportunities to to do that if there’s opportunity to do that I think Nigerians will be more than happy to contribute to governance to be engaged to participate and to make sure that the country is mve forward because I think a lot of people are not satisfied or happy with the

Current state of the country there’s so many other things that he talked about um but yeah it was a good uh opening address at the retreat but we’re going to be looking at uh the government to see whether they actually deliver results for the people now the president said that the

Ministers will be signing a performance bond some would suggest this is a lack of trust or lack of confidence in their ability to deliver and then they’re wondering if indeed the president has doubts about these people in this Cabinet why were they appointed in the first place what do you

Think I don’t think it’s an issue of doubt I think it’s a way to hold them to their feet or hold fire to their feet um in in the past it it’s always been the case that um you have ministers who come into office and rather than serve they

Are serving themselves personally so if you’re a president um that wants to live a legacy if you’re a president that wants to um to work hard for the people then you have to sort of set up some type of framework to make sure that your ministers are doing the right thing I

Think this is one of the ways to do this um this hasn’t happened in the past it’s novel it’s new it then depends on who is in that office and how is able to manage uh to actually hold them accountable but yes I think that every minister of the

Federal republic of Nigeria not only ministers civil servants everybody that works for the government and is being paid by taxpayers I think they should definitely have deliverables and I think periodically they should be evaluated during this Retreat it is a time to reflect on what has worked in the past

On policies that have worked and policies that haven’t worked and what to do going forward so I think all of this is very good that we are seeing the next thing is then um what happens after that when they leave the retreat all right well Dr oku you’ve mentioned that this

Is uh the first time that these uh uh that these kpis have been presented or just any type of uh feedback loop uh in order to measure the performance of our ministers um are you aware if this is also one of the first times that the uh president has gathered all the ministers

In a large group like this to actually uh discuss uh with them or or in or is this the first time as well and also our former ministers was there any other way of measuring uh their performance other than uh the speech on the on the roads from um normal individuals who were

Commenting and just the lack of work being done uh how how was that measured before has it ever been measured well for this government I think this is their first Retreat uh we can check that but I think this is their first Retreat I think former presidents

Have always had a kind of gathering uh with ministers at the beginning and then periodically if they choose to depends on how effective they want the running of the cabinet to be of course there is also the executive council meeting that they usually have uh on a weekly basis

So this is not this is yeah probably the first Retreat for this government and like I mentioned earlier this is very useful es especially for ministers or government officials that are coming into government for the first time we live in a country where um people are appointed without prior experience in

Government um maybe you work for the party and you’re being rewarded for all the work you did during the campaign or maybe you have um relation that is connected to the presidency and you get a job so this is an opportunity for them to learn it is

Opportunity to um to train and to improve whatever skills that you have so I think this is very essential and critical for the smooth running of the government um in the past I think different presidents have had different ways depending on the president and how serious they have been I know that since

From 1999 the most effective government that we had was probably the government of President U abasan and the way that I measure that is that at least economically we were growing at a very high rate during uh president obasan term so there must have been a way through which he communicated with the

Ministers and made sure that um they were there to do the work and president obasan was also someone that read everything that was sent to him if the the president is very much interested in his job as the Commander in Chief and of service because there are people that

Have the idea that working for government is you know the people serving them and not the other way around no you are being paid by the taxpayers that means you’re supposed to work for the people and you’re answerable to them so different president would have had different ways

To make sure that their ministers actually are accountable and the ministers actually deliver on the Mandate that has been given to them well finally Dr oku Miss man said um monitoring of the deliverables will begin in January 2024 but I’m wondering if this delay is necessary considering

The fact that the president has hit the ground running taken a number of bold decisions so why postpone the monitoring till January well they’re probably trying to put things together get the office ready and if you listen to the president’s speech carefully he talked about evaluating you know you know they’ve

Taken time to review themselves Within These past couple of months you know people are reading Handover notes uh people are making decisions people are deciding um what is important what is not important what do we throw out what did not work in the past what will work

For the future so you probably need a little bit of time to do all of this review and then before you can have so this is a new office right it’s a new office before you can then begin to work so I think it’s okay the most important

Thing is that once you have made that decision that is important to follow up on the ministers then you actually have to do it and so from January 2024 um depending on how um the office functions and performs maybe we will see um a country and a bunch of ministers

That are delivering on their mandates and are performing not underperforming we surely hope so thank you so much for joining us this afternoon Dr constant C cokum