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He was the Secretary-General of National Association of Resident Doctors in Kwara State between 1984 and 1985. Dr. Adesola Adedayo also served as Chairman of Apapa-Iganmu Local Council Development Area(LCDA) from 2007 to 2014. The 67 year-old House of Representatives aspirant on the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC) spoke with reporters on the recent state congresses, zoning and rotational presidency, and qualities expected from President Muhammadu Buhari’s successor. EMMANUEL OLADESU was there.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) recently held its congress. What is your assessment?

The exercise was largely successful. It was peaceful and that is one of the signs that those of us who are members look at when things like these come up. In any contest, for example, if you want to be chairman, there can only be one chair at a time, and if there is only one man to be a chairman, once you appoint someone, the other fellows must work together with the appointed person as a family.

If you look at APC in Lagos, it has always been like that as a progressive platform, from the days of Alliance for Democracy, AD, to where we are now, it has always been struggling for relevance, and at the end of the day, somebody has to take the lead. So, in fact, there are people that are disgruntled and they complained, but what I usually tell people is that people only complain when it doesn’t favour them, for those who are successful and members of the exco now, everything works well. What I keep telling people is this, anytime you are struggling for a particular position, look at a larger picture, it is the larger picture that will determine where we are going, and that is why as a larger picture, we must all come in.

So, we must look at a larger picture, and for those of us in South-West, the larger picture we are looking at is Asiwaju 2023.

How did your life of activism prepare you for a future vocation and career in politics?

An activist is somebody who leaves his own matter and continues to pursue the interest of others. As an activist and a member of the student union at the University of Ibadan during the “Ali Must Go era,” it strengthens me, whatever cannot kill one, makes one stronger. All along, I have been a progressive activist, always running around to make sure things are better, some people might think that some of us are too loud, stubborn, but without being stubborn, one is going nowhere in this life. I read a paper about the will to power by Fredrick Nietzsche, I found out that you are what you make of yourself. As an activist, it has prepared me well in every area where I have operated as a medical doctor, zonal pastor in Redeemed Christian Church of God or as a politician in a community, it has been very helpful as far as I am concerned.

How should the challenge of reconciliation in Lagos and Kwara APC be tackled in view of the recently held congresses in the two states?

What I believe is this, which I have said earlier on that there is always room for accommodation. Our leaders must find a way to accommodate these people, it is not a new thing. And when you have a leader with a large heart, that has the ability to accommodate people, it is not difficult to achieve. There are some people we have thought they can never be accommodated but they have been accommodated in the past, and the APC boat is large enough to contain diverse opinions.

I was in Harvard about two years ago where I took an executive course on how to manage diversity. It was a 10-day intensive training for the executives on how to manage people with diverse opinions, we are going to have such people but we can always accommodate them.

There are about four groups  in Lagos APC. Don’t you think that makes the reconciliation efforts difficult?

We know the strength of one another. People may have the opportunity to make a lot of noise because of social media but we know one another’s strengths. There is a saying among young people that Bi Olubadan ba wo nika, o mo egbe eniti nse. Some people are making noise because they want to be heard and relevant, there is no way this can be stopped, even in a family, if asked to produce a leader among a family, there will still be an argument of one being better than the other. What I am saying is that no matter the crisis the APC is going through, it is still better than the PDP, it will be full hardy of us to give power to people who have messed us up for 16 years and we have using the past 6 years to mend the damages caused by the PDP.

For instance in Kwara, there are only two people there against each other, Alhaji Lai Mohammed and the governor. Some of the things they are saying are something that politicians of their calibre shouldn’t be saying. You don’t audit elections, it cannot be audited. If one wants to justify every kobo you spent during an election, you will not run. The governor needs to accommodate those who were working before he came on board. Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in spite of whatever one wants to say about him, has been the one holding the progressives together before this governor came on board. No matter what he might have done, they didn’t even give him one slot. And if we didn’t win the bye-election which brought Ajulo Olawuyi, who is in the House of Reps now, nobody had that confidence that we could take Kwara State from Saraki. It was that that gave us the green light that APC could win election in Kwara State. I think our leaders need to know this, the governor and Alhaji Lai Mohammed, inclusive need to know that there are certain clothes that they cannot be washed in the public.

One of our leaders, Asiwaju Tinubu, used to say that there is nobody that you will put a finger into his anus, and you not meet feaces there, even if it was cleaned with Dettol, you will still be asked what Dettol is doing in your private part. I think we have a crisis resolution process in the party, they should look into it to see they accommodate all of us. We all should look at the larger picture, for God’s sake. It doesn’t mean that if I am not a candidate now,  everything should go to blazes, no, it doesn’t work like that. I think that in Lagos, when push comes to show, all these people that are agitating for one thing or the other, our leaders have the capacity to accommodate them, and I believe they will accommodate them.

We have people like Prince Olusi, the central leader. He has been in politics when some of us were still in school and Yoruba has a culture, we have a way of resolving issues to ensure they don’t blossom into big crisis. I have that abiding and deep faith that the leadership are capable of resolving it.

Some of people are saying that the crisis in Lagos blossomed due to Asiwaju’s absence, who was outside the country for some months to receive medical attention? Could that be the reason?

Things would have been different if he was around, there is no doubt about that. Asiwaju Tinubu has grace of finding a way of coming to an amicable solution, he would pacify them. Of course, he is the leader and a big coach, he can look at a particular player and say let’s get this on. Some of these people that are agitating now have agitated in the past and he settled them. When they would come back to him, you will be shocked. For instance, somebody who is very close to me was in the defunct ANPP, that was about the time Raji Fashola was about to be picked as out governorship candidate for Lagos State. This man approached me to say I should come and join his party. This same guy was also close to Asiwaju and I said no. They offered me the slot of House of Representatives at Apapa but I refused and said I was not leaving Asiwaju’s camp. Two days to the election, I was at Marina to see Asiwaju and met this man there. He came back and all those who were following him at that time lost out at the end of the day. I am sure some of those that are making noise when pacified, they will be okay, it is their followers who would be messed up.

Like I earlier said, and will keep on emphasizing, I have an abiding faith in his (Asiwaju) leadership and there is a grace upon him that is working for him. Whatever happens in Lagos is on the world stage, unlike something that is happening in a far remote corner of Nigeria.

The Southwest is the economic and political capital of Nigeria, and when anything happens in Lagos, even though it is no longer the capital, it is heard all over the world. One of Yoruba adages says ‘aisi n’ile ologini, ile d’ile ekute, t’ologini ba t’ajo de, ekute ile a paramo,’ literally meaning the absence of cat allows mouse to take over ownership of a house, but whenever cat returns home, the mouse will disappear.

Few days ago, there was a reception organized by your group to welcome Tinubu from from his medical trip. Are you among those trying to urge him to contest for president in 2023?

I am one of those who is ever rooting for him, I will tell you the reasons why I am rooting for him and also the issue of age. When two boxers are about to engage each other in the ring, their records would be analyzed, telling us how many times each had fought, the knockouts, draws and wins each had recorded.That speaks for that boxer who has the highest record of victory and that sends shivers into the spine of the opponent. There are several ways of assessing a character either by what he says or action. By the action of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, he has the capacity to be president, though a controversial figure, anybody who wants to leave a legacy must be controversial. Jesus Christ was controversial, that is why he has a legacy, Obafemi Awolowo was a controversial figure and he had a legacy. If we look at Asiwaju’s record as governor on how he catapulted the IGR of Lagos to the present situation when a former Emir could say if any state wants to go, the only one he wouldn’t like to miss is Lagos. The economy of Lagos is bigger than the economy of several African countries. I remember Governor Fashola said at a time that Lagos alone spent about N2bn on parties on every weekend, that is not mean economy. It was due to the handiwork of Tinubu, and he also builds followers. Go and look at those that have worked with him, they have become significant in Nigeria politics today, he is a visionary person. He is somebody that sees potentials in people, the present vice-president was from his school, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, his former Chief of Staff, has become a minister. He is from Kwara. Look at Fashola, he was also his former Chief of Staff, when he needed somebody who was not a hardcore politician and technocrat, see the height Fashola took Lagos to where many others are working to earn a living. There are other examples.

Many of the governors that are making noise now were made in Lagos, Ekiti State governor, Fayemi was made in Lagos, Saraki was made in Lagos, Daniel was made in Lagos and some others like that. Why should we deny him? There is a saying in the church that those who work at the altar must eat at the altar. This is a man who has sacrificed his life, passion, experience and wealth to build governors and people. Some of us are insisting that he should be the president, he will take Nigeria to greater height where Buhari has stopped. I can’t bet it will be better.

Talking of his age, I am a medical doctor, sometimes doctor will tell somebody he has only 10 years to live, at times, that doctor would die before that patient. Death and age are not related, otherwise, a one-year-old child will not die. When talking about age, nobody knows tomorrow, we are not God, don’t let us play god about somebody’s life. The time and age one is going to die, it is beyond us.

For instance, the former American president, Bush, was in his seventies when he became the president. The present one, Joe Biden is also in his seventies. We are taking about capacity and character, he is somebody who will spread wealth all over. The blueprint of Tinubu is what we are still following in Lagos State. They’ve made younger people president, governors, House of Representatives members, Senate president and have messed up. As far as I am concerned, I don’t think we should dwell too much on age. Let me tell you this, experience is not bought from a market, it comes with age and exposure, Asiwaju is eminently exposed, experienced and one gets better with age. I am sure by the grace of God, when the time comes, everyone will find out that we have not made in wrong choice. Buhari has tried his best. Southwest is rooting, the South generally is rooting. It is time for presidency to come to the South. If we want the country to remain as a nation, whether it is an unwritten and gentleman agreement, it is in the interest of the survival of the country for presidency to rotate in the meantime. When former President Olusegun Obasanjo finished his own eight years, it shifted to North, but because of circumstances, it shifted to the South. The North will be completing its eight years after Buhari’s regime. I think if they want this country to move forward, any serious party will take from the South.

Are you not aware that there are some people within the party who are also against Asiwaju’s aspiration?

That’s expected. I have told you when there is a big prize, you will be surprised. In the Bible, James didn’t believe in Jesus, he is Jesus’ half-brother, he didn’t believe in him until he died. No doubt about that, there are some people that we may think they are with us but they are working with the opposition, we know, Asiwaju also knows. He has prepared for some of these backstabbing a long time ago. He is a character with a very big heart, it is the grace upon him that has made him to accommodate those who are brutal opponents and enemies before. Out of every 12 people following Tinubu, there is one Judas, when they are 144, they will be 12, but when we get to the bridge, we would cross it. I haven’t seen that figure in the South-West now that can match Asiwaju. He is in the mode of somebody like Moshood Abiola, I believe everybody will rally round him when the time comes. All these oppositions will come back, some of them are being pushed from outside.

It is not certain yet if the APC is going to zone the presidency to South, if they don’t, what is likely to happen?

I will not like to preempt God but I know that even the leaders of the North know what the South can do. Taking you back memory lane, in 1998 when AD was formed, AD didn’t meet the requirements to be registered as a party but they knew there will be no democracy if they sidelined the South-West which was represented by AD at that time. They were forced to recognize AD, I have this confidence that they will microzone the presidency to the South-West. Buhari also said when he became the president that there were some regions that didn’t vote for him but expected him to leave those who supported him, declaring there is nowhere that is done, when you leaves the people who has backed you up. When talking about a character, he put people who didn’t struggle for power into power, those who have given up and have decided to resign to fate, they became presidents. There were people who couldn’t win a councillorship election, they were given tickets to become governors, House of Representatives members and so on. We are now talking about this man, as far as I am concerned, it is payback time for Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Many people in your constituency are urging you to run for House of Representatives. What is your attitude to their clamour?

Power belongs to God, the first thing I usually tell them is that we should pray to be alive and well. I have tried twice, the first time, I was defeated in the primaries by Ayodeji who subsequently went to House of Representatives and I supported him with my members. Apapa is made up of two constituencies, Constituency 1, the main Apapa and Constituency 2 which is Apapa-Iganmu. In 2019, the people of Apapa Constituency 1 said they didn’t want Ayodeji to run again, but we in Apapa-Iganmu insisted we must run against them, but at the end of the day, the leadership said that we should allow Apapa to complete their term with whoever they want, that was why Honourable Egberoungbe was picked. So Apapa Constituency One has done their term, it is now time for it to shift to Constituency Two.

I am interested in running as I have been urged by my followers and even by the people of the constituency, but I still need the blessing of the leadership. I don’t how they will arrive at it, either by consensus or direct primaries. Like I said earlier, I have an abiding faith in the leadership that they will do what is right for the people of Constituency 2 in Apapa, and I pray that God should spare our lives in good health to witness it.

Is your interest in the race just about ambition, or what exactly is your mission becoming a House of Representatives member?

I am 67 years old today, I have been a doctor for 43 years now. I qualified as a medical doctor in 1979. I started my clinic at Ijora in 1988, you can just go and make enquiry from people. If I am interested in making money, I will not be living where I am now. My hospital is like a general hospital, people go there. I will do my best, I have a passion to help people. It might be too late to buy a plane or yacht but it is never too late to help people. I was a member of the University of Ilorin Council for four years, our term expired in May.

I facilitated the admission of more than 300 students in my local government, some of them sent birthday wishes to me today saying they are among the students I assisted, those are things that make me happy, that I am able to touch the lives of ordinary people who had thought they would not be able to go to school. I have been buying forms even when I wasn’t a politician for people of my constituency as far back as year 2000, I have been sponsoring them to go to university. There are some of them that here today that I can’t even recognize again. There was a boy from Ondo State, I met him in the church, he was supposed to spent 3 years but spent 5 years in the university. I didn’t meet his father until his wedding day. On his wedding day, when we were waiting for his father, the boy said the ceremony must go on because his father was here. He lived in my house for many years. Everything is not just about money, I am nearer my grave than when I was born, so what else do I want? I have built my house since 2003 before I became the chairman in 2007. All my children have graduated before I became council chairman, my children are doctors and engineer, my only grandson doesn’t need any scholarship, he is a British-Canadian citizen but somebody helped me. My parents are illiterate, what elevated me to this position is education. The people from my community like Chief Adedoyin, Jolayemi who are also doctors, if I didn’t go to school, I wouldn’t be able to move near these people. Education lift you up, you will be able to talk to some calibre of people. One of the things I am passionate about is that we need to create an enabling environment for the young people, otherwise, we are courting disaster. Whether we like it or not, if we don’t allow them to grow, one day, they will become a problem to us.

I am also a farmer, I have a 200 hectares of Cashew farm in Kwara. By the time those Cashew nuts mature, I will be approaching 80, is it because of what I want to eat now? I an a zonal pastor in the Redeem Christian Church of God, I fast consistently.

Your transition from being a medical doctor to a politician, pastor and farmer. How is it like? What is this penchant for medical doctors that are coming into politics; there are a few numbers of doctors delving into politics?

By the grace of God, many people don’t see doctors until they die, the majority of people are healthy for a large percentage of their lifetime. So when one is talking about a doctor, we are talking about the sickly, only a small percentage of people go to the hospital. The larger population are those that are in the community like traders, farmers, and if one must influence them, one has to move out of his/her comfort zone which is the medical practice. A lot can be done but more people can be reached as a politician. I read one of the books by a philosopher, the first and best profession is politics, because of the ability to address a larger number of people. What I can do as an individual, as a council chairman, it can reach a bigger population.

And some of the reasons we have challenges is that doctors are not involved in politics, that is why we always have one crisis or the other. If doctors are involved, we will not be sacrificial lambs. If we are like lawyers, things would not be like this for the the profession. If one is not involved and keeps aloof, they will just be looking at you. One has to participate and let your voice be heard. Like I said, in the Bible, Samuel was a leader, prophet and a seer, he was managing all the positions. Back in the village, I was living with the Baale of the village. I started my primary education in 1963 at Iludun at Class 3, I was at Holy Trinity, in Lagos before I went to the village. I was leaving with this Baale and was able to see the way a community was being managed. I was also an activist, and  a secretary-general. I have always been involved in Kwara. I am like a youth leader in Kwara because I get involved; even at my age. Unless we all get involved, there will be no solution to our problems.

Some of the people that are quiet are causing harm to the country. There are two people that can cause harm to a community. The first set of people are those who know and they are not talking, they just keep quiet. The other set are those who don’t know but they are talking, they also spoil things. If you allow those who don’t know anything to have their way, they will mess things up. I used to tell my younger followers at Apapa-Iganmu that if they keep quiet and allow them enthrone a nonentity, once a nonentity is enthroned, it is always difficult to remove such person. This is because he or she would have been very powerful. The only way such person can be stopped is by not allowing him get there in the first place. There are collateral damages that we must guide against if this country must move forward.

So, we need to actually mobilise some people, diverse professions to come into politics and brainstorm on the way out of the crisis. Like I said, I am one of those that don’t want this country to disintegrate, but we need to restrategize and restructure. I am totally in support of restructuring, because where there is no equity, people will be disgruntled and a disgruntled fellow may not have power to fix things but can destroy things.

You are talking about the involvement of doctors in politics, now that they are absent in government, what do you think government can do differently to address doctors’ incessant strike?

I don’t want to address the doctors’ issue in isolation, I want us to look at the health professionals in totality. We need to sit down and look at a formula on how to accommodate our health professionals like nurses, doctors, lab scientists as a whole. Look at when lecturers are running away from the universities, they came up with a formula to have a special scale for lecturers, something like that can be done for doctors and health professionals. If doctors are not paid well, they will leave and we will be the ones at the losing end. There is no doctor that has been self-educated. The system trained most of the doctors, and after graduation, few months down the line, it loses doctors to the United Kingdom and our people are suffering back home. It is not everybody that is not contented and want to leave, some just want a little push so that they can meet their needs. We don’t have good statistics in Nigeria, people are dying in large numbers because of absence of the needed health professionals. We must also go back to drawing board, we need to enlarge our medical schools to produce more doctors. Indian doctors are in UK, and in America in large number but the country is still a good place to seek medical help. Cuba has one of the largest educated population, virtually everybody in Cuba is literate and their health system is so strong. When there is a special problem, a special solution must be proffered, we re in serious dilemma, we must look for solution outside of the box to solve the health professionals issue. Don’t let us think that we are healthy now, when it is one’s turn, that is when one will understand the importance of health professionals. I have tried to reach out to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, that there will be need to do a special scale, just like they are doing for teachers.

Again, the shortage of nurses to doctors is scandalous, if a doctor is employed into private practice, in the next three months, the doctor is likely to leave for UK, once they pass a professional course. There are a class of people called auxiliary nurses, the government is insisting they don’t want to recognize them. Get these people to your side, let them go back to school, do short courses for them, accommodate them into the system. They will be useful in one way of the other. Even in America and other developed countries, nurses prescribe medicine for patients, which was the sole prerogative of doctors in the past. The first set of doctors we had in Nigeria didn’t go to medical school, they attended Yaba College of Technology, they were trained to do minor surgeries and they were called doctors in those days. We are in that situation now where we need to accommodate other health professionals.

In Canada, if one wants to study medicine, one will be asked to do an immersion for one year and afterwards, one will be allowed to go to school of medicine and be absorbed into the system. If I were a health commissioner, I will allow them to accommodate them. We have been fighting for years over this issue, we have not won yet, why don’t we accommodate them and make sure we absorb them into the system? In Apapa-Iganmu community, there is hardly a family that doesn’t have an auxiliary nurse attending to them. When, the regulatory body in charge of Lagos private institutions are coming, they only go to those registered institutions. For every one registered institution, there are about nine that are unregistered and operating underground, they have a way of reaching our to people, they are easily accessible. Doctors are naturally arrogant people, I am one of them. We don’t usually speak the language of the patients, so people prefer to go to the traditional medical expert who will sit with them and see them as friends while doctors see their patients from a point of master mentality, when there is a master morality relationship, there is no way one can get the best of the relationship. Whereas reverse is the case, patients are masters to doctors. For instance, we wanted to operate a patient, the anesthetist, surgeon, nurses were there but no patient, at the end of the day, we all had a rethink that the most important person is the patient. It is because patients are available, that is why we are called doctors. We have to sit at a round table even with those that we think they are not part of the profession; they may also have some inputs.

Some of things I learnt at Harvard. There was an aeration problem with one of their buildings in Kenya, the architects and structural engineer were summoned but they couldn’t solve the problem. The person who eventually solved the problem was someone who studied insects, he asked them to look at the way bees organized their hills and how ventilated they are and that was how the problem was solved. They called the biggest engineer, architect and structural engineer to deal with it but none could solve the problem until somebody who was in tune with nature was called and the person brought their attention to the way ants organized their anthills.

We will be deceiving ourselves if we think the solutions will come from only doctors and health professionals, it can come from somebody who is a musician that is inspired. There are so many problems that we can solve like that. If we look at our country, we are going down in all the parameters and in order for us to change the tide, we need to look at the solution holistically.

The recent mid-term ministerial performance retreat of the Muhammadu Buhari administration provided a rare opportunity for functionaries to tender their stewardship and stakeholders to re-evaluate their performance. It also afforded the government a chance to project into the future. EMMANUEL OLADESU reports.

Legitimacy is a quality every government should always strive to acquire and renew. Public perception of governance is crucial. After elections, functionaries are expected to fulfil their campaign promises to the people.

Also, there is need for government to render accounts and get a feedback from people, who are beneficiaries of its programmes.

When an administration tries to meet these criteria, it may satisfy the conditions for transparency and accountability.

According to observers, President Muhammadu Buhari has not been getting the accolades he deserves for his achievements, partly because his administration does not blow its trumpet.

However, the recent mid-term ministerial performance review retreat was a wide departure. It presented an opportunity for the president and his team to catalogue their accomplishments, based on the implementation of policies and programmes.

The event held at the State House Conference Centre, Presidential Villa, Abuja. In attendance were President Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Boss Mustapha, President of the African Development Bank, Dr. Akinwumi Adeshina, British High Commissioner,  ministers, Permanent Secretaries and eminent Nigerians from all walks of life.

Many challenges had confronted the administration. They include the global economic meltdown an the Coronavirus pandemic. Nigeria managed to recover from their effects on governance.

President Buhari noted that there were adjustments to policy approaches and methods to achieve the objectives of his government in nine key priority areas.

These are stability of the macro-economy, agriculture and food security, sufficiency in energy/power, petroleum products, improved transportation and other infrastructure,  indsutrialsation drive focusing on Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs,) enhancement of social inclusion and reduction in poverty, anti-corruption war and security.

The president attempted a holistic review of his government’s achievements. These include the establishment of InfraCo Plc in 2020, as a world class infrastructure development vehicle, wholly focused on Nigeria, with combined debt and equity take-off capital of N15 trillion, to be managed by an independent fund manager.

He said the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF was also established in 2020 with more than USD 1Billion in funding and there was also the Nigeria Innovation Fund by the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), which was designed to address investment opportunities in the domestic technology sector: data networking, datacenters, software, Agri-tech, Biotech, and the likes.

He listed the 11.9km Second Niger Bridge, 120 km Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, 375 km Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria- Kano expressway and the East West Road as some of the efforts targeted at improving transportation in the country.

Buhari stressed: “Our administration has made tremendous progress on railway projects in the country. Upgrading of our railway network is being extended with the recent completion of the Lagos – Ibadan line. The Itakpe-Ajaokuta rail line, has finally been completed and commissioned after 30 years of its conception,” he said.

The president assured that work would soon commence on the Port-Harcourt-Maiduguri line and Calabar-Lagos Coastal Line to connect the southern and eastern states of the country, adding that there was noticeable progress in the upgrade of the country’s airports, with the state-of-the-art facilities in line with world class safety standards.

“On the economy, we witnessed three consecutive quarters of growth, after negative growth rates recorded in the second and third quarters of 2020. The GDP grew from 0.8 per cent in 2017 to 2.2 per cent in 2019, but declined in the first quarter of 2020, as a result of the downward trend in global economic activities triggered by the COVID-19 Pandemic.

“As at Second Quarter 2021, GDP growth rate was at 5.01 per cent, the highest since the inception of this administration. On the power sector, implementation of a ‘Willing Buyer-Willing Seller’ policy has opened opportunities for increased delivery of electricity to underserved homes and industries.

“We are also executing a number of critical projects through the Transmission Rehabilitation and Expansion Programme, which will result in achieving the national goal of improved power supply by 2025,” Buhari noted.

Buhari said by signing the Petroleum Industry Bill, 2021 into law on August 16, and directing the implementation committee to complete the processes for the successful operationalisation of the act within 12 months, his government had put in place a legal, governance, regulatory and fiscal framework for the Nigerian Petroleum Industry, and for the development of host communities.

The president said: “As part of the efforts towards strengthening our national security, we have increased investments in arms, weapons and other necessary equipment; expanded the National Command and Control Centre to nineteen states of the Federation; and established a Nigerian Police Trust Fund, which will significantly improve funding for the Nigeria Police Force.

“We have also approved the sum of N13.3 billion for the take-off of the community policing initiative across the country, as part of measures adopted to consolidate efforts aimed at enhancing security nationwide.”

Nigeria recently received six A-29 Super Tucano aircrafts as part of efforts to boost the nation’s campaign against insecurity Buhari said in the bid to address over-dependence on other countries for military equipment and logistics, he has instructed the Defence Ministry to create “a modest military industrial complex for the local production of weapons to meet some of the requirements of the country’s armed forces.”

Buhari spoke on efforts to empower the youth and other vulnerable groups through the expansion of the National Social Register. He identified the official database for the implementation of the Conditional Cash Transfer programme, by 1 million additional households and the establishment the N75Billion Nigerian Youth Investment Fund created to boost the Nigerian economy through leverage and access to finance for youths.

His words: “These accomplishments are a testament to the fact that all hands are on deck in establishing a solid foundation for even greater successes in future,” even as he implored ministers to work closely with the Permanent Secretaries to ensure accelerated and effective delivery of the policies, programmes and projects in their respective priority areas.

An important takeaway from the programme was the content of a slide presentation that showed the performance indexes of corresponding miniseries against the priority areas in the context of the deliverables set for 2023.

The slide tracked performances of government agencies in actaulising set goals. While some of the policy projects are up and running, there were some that were yet to kickstart or were not moving at expected speed due to specified conditions.

This provided the opportunity for those saddled with the responsibilities of implementation to identify where they stood, provided the national leadership with insight on situation and gave members of the public opportunity to track and understand development in various sectors of the economy.

The retreat advised ministries to reprioritise and focus more on those deliverables that have the highest impact on respective priority areas that could be delivered by 2023, ensuring capacity, strengthening the PRS department in MDAs, while focusing on target setting, tracking and reporting.

The National Bureau of Statistics was also urged to expand its scope to include key outcome metrics that measured the impact of the nine priority areas, while ministries and their agencies were encouraged to set up mini delivery units to improve systems and process of tracking and reporting on their deliverables.

The SGF, Mustapha, said through the bilateral meetings and high-level engagements organised earlier in 2021 to sensitize leadership of all federal ministries on the new results framework and the performance management system, there were reliable evidence that MDAs had a better understanding and appreciation of how their ministerial mandates contributed directly to the priority areas and the possible impact of their activities on the lives of Nigerians.

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“Over the past 25 months, Ministers have continued to implement the deliverables assigned to them in line with their ministerial mandates jointly signed with the Permanent Secretaries,which serve as a performance bond with Mr. President,” Mustapha stated.

Highlighting the performance of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), the SGF said in the  second term of President Buhari from May 29, 2019, to August 31, 2021, the FEC has held 52 meetings and granted 579 approvals comprising of 381 contracts, 110 policies and 88 briefs/notes.

Mustapha said: “The total number of contracts, policies and briefs/notes approved by the FEC between November 2015 and August 2021 stand at 1,403, comprising of 878 contracts, 319 policies and 206 briefs/notes. The 878 contracts approved by FEC have mostly targeted the provision of infrastructure, geared towards enabling faster economic growth and development.

“In the same vein, the analysis also showed that the government remained focused on its cardinal responsibility of responsively addressing the myriads of needs and challenges of its citizens through the 319 approved policies initiated during the period.”

Speaking outside of the retreat, where he analysed the importance of the exercise, SGF said,“The objective of the retreat was to remind ourselves of the three cardinal objectives of the administration: security, economy and corruption.

“Prior to the retreat, in 2019, we developed nine priority areas, which were supposed to deal with the myriads of problems we have in this country. That’s from stabilising the economy – macroeconomy to security for all. The objective of the retreat was achieved in evaluating and analysing, and how we have come thus far. We were quite satisfied that, we have done remarkably well and as for that, by independent assessors.

“If you noticed, the entire workings of the retreat was facilitated by my office in terms of attendance and ensuring that all the submissions were made. A British agency helped us in developing the dashboard – the performance management. So, what we have done is to coordinate this thing and ensure government is run as one business, so, everybody knows what is happening in terms of the nine priority areas and to also evaluate, where we are in terms of the deliverables and routinely, I’ll make that available to the President. So, that’s the objective of the retreat and I can say to a large extent, that we have succeeded in that.

“The other component why the retreat was adjudged to have been very successful is that, we brought in the corporate world as a value added to the subject of discussion. You can’t talk about energy sufficiency in supply of power and petroleum products without bringing Dangote as a key player. There are three refineries that we are trying to repair and put to use in terms of capacity production, it’s almost half the price of his combined. So, when it comes to this, he’s going to be a major player. That’s why we brought people like him.

“We brought in a private organisation, KPMG, to help evaluate if what we are saying is true. Look, this is the first time, in the history of this country that, a government is this transparent. We opened our books to people to evaluate, because we are all working for the people of Nigeria. And it is because of the kind of leadership that President Muhammadu Buhari provides: the openness, his transparency, his willingness to be interrogated. Some past president would not let you do a critique of what they’ve been able to achieve.

“So, I believe strongly that the objectives of the retreat have been achieved, even in terms of the deliverables; in terms of the comments we got and the inputs. The other component of it is that we decided to make it a Nigerian affair. We brought in Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Akinwunmi Adesina, Amina Mohammed, to speak to us.

The ADB President, Dr. Adesina, who spoke on the theme: ‘Nigeria’s Economic Resurgence: Learning from the African Experience,’ expressed optimism that the GDP growth rate for the continent would increase from 3.4 per cent in 2021. He said Nigeria’s economic growth rate was projected to rebound to 2.4 per cent and could reach 2.9 per cent by 2022.

He, however, hinged the country’s recovery from the devastating effects of COVID 19 on the twin issues of vaccines and debt management. He urged the government to build world-class local pharmaceutical industries to effectively tackle the production of therapeutic drugs and vaccines.

“Nigeria must revamp its local pharmaceutical industry and launch strategic investments for local vaccine manufacturing. Africa should not be begging for vaccines; Africa should be producing vaccines. The African Development Bank will invest $3 billion in support of local pharmaceutical industries in Africa, including in Nigeria.

“Nigeria must decisively tackle its debt challenges. The issue is not about debt-to-GDP ratio, as Nigeria’s debt-to-GDP ratio at 35 per cent is still moderate. The big issue is, how to service the debt and what that means for resources for domestic investments needed to spur faster economic growth.

“The debt service to revenue ratio of Nigeria is high at 73 per cent. Things will improve as oil prices recover, but the situation has revealed the vulnerability of Nigeria’s economy. To have economic resurgence, we need to fix the structure of the economy and address some fundamentals,” Adesina added.

The event offered opportunities  for retrospection and introspection. Stakeholders were able to evaluate what government has done in relation to what it promised during the campaigns.

What should be the preoccupation of the administration between now and 2023?

According to analysts, President Buhari should focus attention on the following: reinvigorating security and anti-corruption battle, re-direction of economy to halt the high inflationary trend, job creation beyond rhetoric, avoidance of nepotism and promotion of inclusion, reduction of the debt burden, overhauling refineries to reduce fuel importation, completion of infrastructural projects and the succession challenge.