The Federal Government had directed the ministers to render their first performance reports by December 2019, to enable the government determine their compliance with the policies and programmes of the government, the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, disclosed yesterday.
Osinbajo made the disclosure in a speech at the Nigerian Institute of Management’s, NIM, 2019 Annual National Management Conference in Abuja.
He stated that before the inauguration of the ministers, the Presidency had developed a list of clearly defined mandates for each of the ministers and their various ministries to serve as a guide for them.
“The presidential policy preceded the inauguration of this government. The president developed a list of specific mandate for each ministry; each of those mandates has a clearly spelt out action points.
“Every minister has a clearly spelt-out mandate/ action plans. Some of those mandates are about eight points or seven points. The Ministers are expected to render their first report of performance in December.
“It is a more measurable way of determining whether ministers are doing what they want to do; whether ministries are doing what is expected.”
The Vice President further disclosed that the Federal Government was concerned about the challenges confronting the country’s power sector and was considering the decentralization of sector.
He said: “We believe we can resolve a lot of the power problems by decentralizing power production, generation and distribution, such that it is not just the electricity distribution companies, DISCO, and the currently privatized electricity generating companies, GENCO, that produce power, but that anyone that is willing to produce power, is able to do so; and we are able to license sections to enable more people come into the power market and produce power.” Osinbajo added that the Federal Government was considering scaling up the MarketMoni and TraderMoni scheme, under the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme, GEEP, to address the issue of finance to vast majority of Nigerians. According to him, the government is optimistic that it was possible to lift people out of poverty, hence its decision to scale up the TraderMoni and MarketMoni initiative.
He said: “It is evident that if we do not find solutions to some of the issues hindering access to finance to people at the lowest end of the ladder, it would become very difficult to take people out of poverty.
“ In his welcome address, President and Chairman of Council of the NIM, Professor Olukunle Iyanda, disclosed that successful and professional management of Nigeria’s democratic system would address the major challenges confronting governance in Nigeria and guarantee the wellbeing of citizens.
He said: “The staggering inequalities which the Nigerian form of democracy has produced, whereby the representatives of the people live in obscene affluence while the people wallow in poverty and want is neither moral nor just or defensible.
“We need to review the root causes of these challenges of democracy, find ways of adjusting them and ensure a system and structure that guarantee that the citizens, rather than the representatives, are the primary focus and beneficiaries of the dividends of our democratic system.”
