Hadiza Bala Usman, Policy Coordination and Non-Performing Ministers, By Adnan Mukhtar
One of the earliest appointments of President Tinubu’s set of aides is the office of the Special Adviser to the President on Policy Coordination.
The President created this office and appointed a vibrant woman Hadiza Bala Usman as his Special Adviser on Policy Coordination to coordinate and supervise the activities of his appointees towards a policy that will be impactful to the public.
Hadiza was formerly the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority before her suspension and sacking by President Buhari in 2022 on the recommendations of the Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi.
She had also served as the Chief of Staff to then-governor Nasiru El-Rufai of Kaduna State.
Hadiza is not only competent but qualified to hold the current office. What will help Hadiza in discharging her role effectively is the support she is getting from President Tinubu.
The President has publicly urged all his appointees to cooperate with her that she will help in the direction of his administration’s public policy.
The President has recently stopped some of his aides from attending Council meetings except for his Special Adviser on Policy Coordination and of Information and Strategy Mr Bayo Onanuga, a veteran journalist.
This is a testimony of the power of the office she is occupying at the moment.
The President can prove the power given to the office of Hadiza Bala Usman only when he implements the report she will be submitting to him concerning the activities of his appointees, the ministers in particular.
President Tinubu has appointed a large number of people to his cabinet in this era of a crumbling economy. It’s obvious that some of these ministers have nothing to offer but were considered because of political reward. Competency, capacity and track record were never considered before their appointment into their respective ministries.
Some of these ministers are doing nothing in the office other than to drink tea, discuss politics and receive unnecessary guests like political musicians, and career politicians who have taken politics as their means of survival.
The North is the victim of President Tinubu’s appointment of incompetent people for political reward. Some of the ministers don’t even know the direction of their ministries; they are being hijacked by the senior ministers after realising that their heads are empty in offering something tangible to their respective ministries.
I will advise Mrs Bala Usman to consider advising the President in scrapping the office of State Ministers in some ministries. There is no need for that, one minister can handle the affairs of such ministries
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Take a look at the Ministry of Labour, Police Affairs, Trade and Investment, Water Resources, Housing and Urban Development, Solid Minerals, Environment etc don’t need a state minister at all. How many parastatals do we have in these ministries?
In what manner does the Finance Minister helping this government and Nigerians? CBN Governor, Minister of Budget and planning who has nothing to show in his 8 years as governor of Kebbi State.
These people should be sacked for not making any impact on the citizens. They are overhyped.
The President should have a one-on-one meeting with these ministers and I will be proved right about the ignorance of their respective ministry’s direction, particularly the state ministers.
Why should we be wasting taxpayer’s money just to compensate politicians with appointments and have nothing to offer on the table other than going to weddings with a large number of aides and security personnel?
Mrs Bala Usman should be blunt enough to tell the President the truth, the North is crying as a majority of the ministers appointed are incompetent for such a big position. They are not big for the office of Senior Special Assistant to the President. They should be assigned to a position where they will be fully in charge.
According to the president, there’s no excuse for poor performance from ministers and other appointees in his government.
He said in his New Year speech to Nigerians, that his government has put in place a Key Performance Index (KPI) for political appointees to assess their performance.
I’m sure that many of these state ministers have nothing to show, their performance so far in office is very poor because of a senior minister in place. I hope that Usman will not spare any of them for the interest of the nation.
Part of the President’s statement reads:
“It is the reason I put in place a policy coordination evaluation, monitoring and delivery unit and the presidency to make sure that governance output improves in the living conditions of our people.
“We have set the parameters for evaluation within the first quarter of this year. Ministers are heads of agencies with a future ideas administration that I lead will continue to show themselves.”
The president’s Senior Adviser on Policy Coordination, Hadiza Usman, had said in the past that the central coordination and delivery unit at the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation has defined deliverables for each of the 48 ministers and ministries.
She said the ministers were asked to plan their 2024 budgets according to the already set KPIs for their ministries.
Tinubu’s government has already set the parameters for evaluation for the first quarter of the year.
We are waiting to see whether the President will fire these non-performing ministers when they fail to deliver.
Adnan is a media personality and can be reached via [email protected]
