Kenyatta: No Government Can Address All Nigeria’s Problems
*Says reinventing the wheel, a challenge that must be addressed
*Declares continuity, succession plan ‘critical’ to development
*Ministerial retreat has helped to keep us in check, Buhari posits
Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja
Former President of Kenya, Mr. Uhuru Kenyatta, has said no one administration can address all of Nigeria’s problems within its constitutional term limit.
In his recent keynote address at the 2022 edition of the Ministerial Performance Review Retreat held at the State House, Abuja, which had not been reported, Kenyatta said the problem with many African governments was the tendency to waste time and effort trying to create something that someone else had already created.
In the speech, which THISDAY got exclusively, the erstwhile Kenyan leader, who also cited his country’s experience as an example, declared that since the challenges could not be addressed by one administration, the issue of continuity and succession planning were very critical to development.
President Muhammadu Buhari, in his remarks, said the yearly performance review exercise introduced by his administration had helped the government in trying to get its priorities right.
Kenyatta shared the Kenyan experience in its attempt to deliver the promises of development and highlighted how he used the Presidential Delivery Unit (PDU) to achieve his administration’s objectives. He Kenyatta acknowledged that Africa nations shared similar challenges in various aspects of nationhood. He said the challenges were often exacerbated by impatience on the part of the citizenry and compounded by inadequate resources and limited timeframe.
The former Kenyan leader offered solutions to African leaders faced with challenges, such as insecurity, terror, pandemic, and other setbacks.
He stated, “The first, being focused. The ability to be able to focus on what the critical issues are – we cannot deliver on everything, but we can be focused to be able to target our intervention to those areas that most affect our people, the greatest immediate impacts and, also, that lays the foundation for a stronger nation, and prosperity tomorrow.
“The second, I believe, is the realisation of (the fact that) the challenges we face are not challenges that can be completed by any one single administration. So, therefore, ultimately, the issue of continuity and succession planning is also very critical.”
Kenyatta said his Presidential Delivery Unit (PDU), embedded in the presidency and which functioned to see that the government deliver on priority areas, was instrumental to many successes recorded by his administration within its first five years of governance.
He urged Nigerians to stick to the development agenda of the Buhari administration by voting a successor who would continue from wherever he stopped.
Kenyatta stated, “I heard very keenly, when the secretary to the federal cabinet was speaking, and there is one thing that I will encourage; it is that as this administration winds down, let us not suffer the traditional.
“It is like all-African problem, that when one administration winds down, the next one thinks whatever was done, we can do better. And you start trying to imagine ways of reinventing the wheel – the wheel can only be invented once. We need to begin to institutionalise these practices, if we ever hope to deliver on our promises.”
He reiterated that no single administration had the capacity to resolve all the problems any African country faced, saying each administration should build on the foundation laid by the previous one.
“Therefore, institutionalising and learning lessons and not repeating mistakes is part of our journey to transform this continent, but if we become people, who adopt start-stop policies, as, unfortunately, many have done in the past, we will never fully achieve the socio-economic agenda that we set for ourselves,” he said.
Buhari alluded to the contributions of the peer-review mechanism and self-appraisal system implemented by his government, to objectively assess administration’s commitments to actualising the promises made to Nigerians.
He said, “I am glad to note that we have sustained this yearly stock-taking innovative initiatives introduced in 2019 by holding three consecutive performance review retreats in 2020, 2021 and 2022, respectively. This has helped us to clearly identify what we have done, what needs to be done, and how best to get it done.”
The president told the gathering that going by the assessment report and discussions at the retreat, it was evident that his government had made appreciable progress through collective efforts in setting the country on the path of sustainable development while improving the well-being of the people.
He stressed, “Notwithstanding these achievements, there are still unfinished businesses that we must speedily complete to ensure we finish well. We must, therefore, endeavour to close every gap in our implementation efforts to ensure the attainment of set targets by 2023.
“This retreat is not the end of our assessment process, as I have directed the Secretary to the Government of the Federation to continue with the quarterly review process and assessment for the third and fourth quarters of 2022 and the reports will form part of our transition documents.”
Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha, had been superintending the retreats since inception and ensured that they met the set goals.
Mustapha said a major purpose of the mid-term retreat was to institutionalise the Performance Management System (PMS) as a way to promote the culture of accountability and transparency in the public service. He said it was also to render progress report on the level of implementation of ministerial mandates along the nine priority areas of the administration, review performance of ministries, and identify key impediments to implementation of the ministerial mandates; and re-strategise on how to accelerate delivery of results.
According to the SGF, “The purpose of this third year Ministerial Performance Review Retreat is to report on progress made in the implementation of ministerial mandates along the nine priority areas of the administration based on data from the Central Delivery Coordination Unit (CDCU) Performance Management System.
“Other objectives are to analyse and discuss reasons for achievements or non-achievement of performance targets, identify and agree on strategies to improve performance, recognise accomplishment, and encourage ministers to deliver on the legacy projects of Mr. President as the administration winds down.”
Mustapha was particularly elated that the CDCU, which was set in motion as a catalyst for improved performance, had been driving the federal government’s delivery initiative with resounding success with its performance management system introduced in 2021.
Mustapha said, “Sequel to the Mid-Term Ministerial Performance Review Retreat last year, the CDCU developed Performance Improvement Suggestions (PIS) for all 28 ministries as well as the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF).
“The PIS, as a major value addition, recommends ways of improving performance, especially for deliverables that were rated below 50 per cent. The PIS enables each ministry develop actionable plans to accelerate the implementation of deliverables towards the achievement of the 2023 targets.
“To address the issue of limited civil service capacity in driving the delivery process, CDCU has continued to provide technical support for ministries to establish, inaugurate and train their delivery task teams, which are made up of staff of the departments and agencies under the supervision of such ministries, to ensure timely reporting on ministerial deliverables.
“This support aims at deepening the delivery capability of MDAs to complete key legacy policies, projects and programmes of government with a focus on the low-hanging fruits. As at September 2022, a total of 17 ministries had set up and inaugurated their Delivery Task Teams, while others are at advanced stages in preparation to doing so.”
The SGF also said as part of efforts to ensure the functionality of the performance management system, an application, Presidential Delivery Tracker (PDT), was launched on August 30, 2022. He said it was a co-creation platform that connected citizens to governance in Nigeria by increasing their access to federal government’s priority projects.
