Buhari sets target for ministers

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President Muhammadu Buhari has set target for his ministers, Saturday PUNCH has learnt.

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.

Saturday PUNCH however gathered that 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 organised 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 organised 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-organisation and revolutionalisation 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, energise 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 rationalise 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 industrialisation 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.

Source: Punch