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Jonathan, ministers and performance contract

Published by Tribune on Wed, 29 Aug 2012


Leon Usigbe writes on the rationale behind the Performance Contract signed between President Goodluck Jonathan and all members of his cabinet.PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan is under pressure to perform.Nigerians expected that by now, he would have fixed the power sector and ensured constant electricity supply. Hopefully, things are turning around. But, in the same way, they expected him to have dealt a final blow to corruption and the ongoing security challenges in the country, paved all the nation's highways, tackled unemployment in good measure and revived all other basic infrastructure in the country. Certainly, these were legitimate expectations of the Nigerians who broke all barriers, sectional or religious, to vote massively for him in last year's presidential election.They have been told stories over and over again of imminent improvement in their well-being and given hopes that were never realised under previous administrations. When a man who had no shoes, whom many of them could identify with, appeared in the horizon, there was relief that indeed, a breath of fresh air was not far away. However, there is now doubt as to whether the promised breath of fresh air is realistic or whether for a fact things are being done differently as had been trumpeted.Nigerians are in a hurry. They want to reap immediate gains from the democracy, which they have laboured so hard to achieve and sustain. Therefore, anything short of visible achievements that impact directly on them is a failure. It does not matter whether the government is just into its second year in office. As far as Nigerians are concerned, President Jonathan made promises, he has been elected and is under obligation to deliver quickly.Against public perception and outcry, the president believes that he is working out his heart, doing everything humanly possible to transform the country. If that is the case, why is the outcome of his efforts so difficult to see'President Jonathan blames this on the opposition and some media owners as well as the resistance that comes with change. He seems to believe that there is a misconception about government's efforts because the truth is not reflected by the media. Nigerians largely rely on what they are told by the media but for Jonathan, this is dangerous because since the media are controlled by owners who have their own individual interests, they are not likely to give accurate picture of what the government has achieved especially if such media owners sympathize with the opposition political parties. Operatives of government too would be making a grave mistake if they judged themselves with what they media are saying, he argued.For the president, therefore, it was necessary for government to evolve its own parameters to judge it's performance. His words: 'It gives all of us targets and you can assess yourself whether you are really achieving that target. You will not depend on what the newspapers will want to write because the media today is highly politicised. Before, the media used to be the voice of the ordinary people but now, the media is the voice of those who own the media houses and those who own the media have private jets and those who have private jets are not ordinary people. So, the media is now the voice of the powerful people. So, we have to have a way of assessing ourselves.'This was what gave rise to the idea of Performance Contract that the president has now signed with members of his cabinet. He has now directed that it should be extended to all other levels of the Federal Government. Explaining the idea, President Jonathan said moments after all the ministers signed that it was a matter of working to achieve a possible 100 marks in performance even though 70 would be an outstanding success. 'The key thing is that we have given ourselves points that we think we will get at. We believe that if we get at those points or if we achieve 70 per cent of that, which is extremely difficult...the professors will tell us they found it difficult to give somebody A and A is ordinarily 70 per cent, but they will not want to give A. So, if we can get up to 70 per cent, then at least, it will be better off for our own country,' he said.Even though the system has been in place in other democracies, it was a novel idea in Nigeria which inevitably attracted a lot of insinuations, including being a ploy by the president to get rid of some of his ministers. Jonathan has responded to this, saying that apart from not being a tool for cabinet reshuffle, it was not also meant to witchhunt anyone but 'it is to remind all of us, from president to directors general, to advisers and other aides that we are representatives of the Nigerian people, and we are accountable to them at all times. I had stated clearly during the inauguration of the Federal Executive Council that Ministers are expected to be accountable, productive, transparent and focused. In the past two months, many of you (ministers) have had to make detailed presentations on the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in your ministries. Today's exercise (signing) is yet a reminder of our commitment to service delivery for the common good of Nigerians.'He explained that the objective the administration was to ensure enhanced performance, transparency and accountability in governance. It was geared towards improving performance and delivering quality and timely services to the citizenry, improving productivity and instilling a greater sense of accountability for effective service delivery. Jonathan assured that it was part of the process aimed at ensuring that the administration delivered on its mandate to Nigerian citizens. He reminded the ministers that already, government had spelt out the goals in its Transformation Agenda to which every minister had been given an opportunity to contribute.It was even more imperative, he reasoned, because the citizenry expected government to be more proactive and effective in its actions. Accordong to him, 'Nigerians expect to be provided with the basic necessities of life to function more effectively in a competitive environment. The majority voted for us because they believe this administration will ensure an improved standard of living. Since our assumption of office last year, we have strived to ensure improved quality service delivery in all the key areas identified for putting our nation on a solid path of development.'Before the signing of the Perfomance Contract, each minister and his/her Permanent Secretary and other Directors were involved in identifying the key benefits to be delivered to the citizens - the outcomes and the tangible projects that needed to be put in place by their respective ministries to bring about those benefits.They were also involved in determining the KPIs and the various targets for 2012 and beyond. President Jonathan noted that the process has also exposed the ministers to the critical need for clear understanding of the mandate of their respective ministries, strategic and operational planning and the need to focus on results delivery, rather than on inputs, activities and processes, for development to be of relevance and benefit tothe citizens.President Jonathan was emphatic in saying that with the process in place, he expected it to be translated into individual staff performance evaluation process in the Federal Civil service. He said: 'I expect that the process will serve as an instrument towards the realisation of the objectives of government as enumerated in the Vision 20:2020 document as well as our administration's Transformation Agenda, which is targeted primarily at improving physical infrastructure, human capital, the real sector and good governance for Nigerians by the year 2015. It is my earnest expectation that this process will provide the missing link between planning and budgetary allocation to MDAs by providing a basis for performance - based budgeting, that will tie their allocation to their capacity to deliver on the agreed mandate based on clear, concrete and objective results for the citizens of Nigeria. It will also strongly support evidence-based decision making, by policy makers and implementers.'Jonathan therefore charged all MDAs to develop clear, detailed and documented strategic and operational plans to guide their implementation between now and 2015, wanting them to also strengthen their monitoring and evaluation units to support the implementation of the plans and tracking and reporting performance on the agreed indicators. 'At the heart of our objective is the Nigerian citizen with whom we have a pact. Let me therefore reiterate this administration's commitment to delivering on those promises of a better present and a greater future,' he enthused even as he promised that 'we have set for ourselves a tough task and there is no going back. Nigerians expect a better deal from government and that is what they shall get under my watch.
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