The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council, last week, gave a roadmap of policy implementation of the new government.
Last week, the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council (APCPCC) held a two-day Policy Dialogue in Abuja, on the Implementation of the Agenda for Change. The dialogue with the theme, “Implementing Change: From Vision to Reality,” had experts on financial matters and technocrats as resources persons.
Notable among topics considered at the event are: Improving the National Economy for shared prosperity, Repositioning agriculture for job creation and economic growth, Achieving qualitative and affordable healthcare, Achieving sustainable reforms in the Oil/ Gas sector and reducing inequality and achieving sustainable human development were treated. Also on the dialogue list were issues like: Achieving Holistic and Sustainable reforms in the education sector, Developing infrastructure for national development, Achieving diversity and inclusion in public life, Exploring sports, tourism and the creative industry for job creation, Governance and improving efficiency in public service, tackling corruption in Nigeria, Practical steps to reforms in administration of justice and strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights, foreign policy and the agenda for change, Achieving security sector governance in the agenda for change and ensuring the delivery of priorities.
The dialogue, which was declared open by the Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo had resource persons like: Mrs. Ifueko Omoigu- Okauru, former chairman Federal Inland Revenue Service; Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi, vice-chairman, Senate Committee on Internal Affairs; Dr. Muhammed Ali Pate, former Minister of State for Health; Dr. Tajudeen Umar, former Board Chairman, Nigeria Sao Tome and Principe Joint Development Authority and Dr. Tunde Ahonsi, Resident Representative, UNFPA, Ghana.
Also among the presenters were: Mr. Bolaji Abdullahi, former Minister for Youths and Sports; Ms. Bolanle Onagoruwa, Acting MD/CEO, Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company PLC; Ms. Saudatu Mahdi, Executive Director, WRAPA; Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, Governor, Kaduna State; Mr. Soji Apampa, Co-Founder, the Convention on Business Integrity; Mr. Olawale Fapohunda, Managing Partner, Legal Resources Consortium; Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, former Permanent Secretary, Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Lt. Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau (rtd), former Chief of Army Staff (COAS). For the Director, Policy, Research and Strategy of the APCPCC, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, the essence of the dialogue was to change from policy planning to policy implementation.
According to the former Ekiti State governor, the dialogue was a continuation of the research, strategy and policy of the Directorate to deliver the dividends of democracy as promised during the campaign Fayemi said: “In a sense, the phase of policy conception is over and we are entering the phase of execution, governance, of providing tangible developmental deliverables. The challenge of translating ideas into policy and praxis now looms large. Given the degree of work that has been put in by the directorate and our welldocumented national problems of policy implementation, the focus should now be on evolving an institutional framework to deliver the agenda for change.” Unfortunately, neither the national officials of the party nor the elected members of the party attended the dialogue.
Most people who attended the discourse were members of the civil society, organised labour, technocrats and those lobbying for ministerial slots. The event which was declared open by the then President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, represented by Osinbajo had its keynote address delivered by the former Prime Minister of Britain, Mr. Tony Blair. In his remarks, Osinbajo lamented the crash of the economy. According to him, notwithstanding the campaign promises made by APC, the party would face serious challenges in addressing economic issues at a short period. He said: “In the course of the election campaign, we ran an issues- based campaign that identified certain areas of public policy as high priorities for propelling Nigeria forward.
We addressed the challenges of the economy, insecurity, corruption and jobs creation. “We spoke to the challenge of providing opportunities for selfactualisation to millions of our young people who face an uncertain future with understandable anxiety. We also addressed the challenge of providing for the most vulnerable segments of our population by equipping them with the tools to emerge from the crippling limitations of poverty to achieve dignified and productive citizenship.
“The figures of extreme poverty in our society – 110 million by current estimates – makes it clear that our biggest national problem is the extreme poverty of the majority. Thus, no analysis is required to conclude that dealing with poverty and its implications is a priority. “We are concerned that our economy is currently in perhaps its worst moment in history. Local and international debt stands at $60 billion. Our debt servicing bill for 2015 is N953.6 billion, 21 per cent of our budget.
On account of severely dwindled resources, over two-thirds of the states in Nigeria owe salaries. Federal institutions are not in much better shape. Today, the nation borrows to fund recurrent expenditure.” Blair, in his address delivered by Mr. Lord Mandelson, emphasised the need for elected officers, especially President Buhari to be decisive in his decisions and to hit the ground running from the first day in office. He gave instances of governments that had made impact by taken decisions that are not too popular among the people but paid off at long run. One of such countries he cited is Indonesia, where a government removed oil subsidy the first day he entered into office. Blair said: “At the beginning for us, there was nothing easy at all.
We discovered some important things pretty quickly. The first thing is that the skills of leadership that take you to government is not the same skills you need to be successful in government. You have to switch from what you were campaigning for when you are in office. You have to switch from a persuader where the tools of your trade are your words to being a CEO where it is the deeds and how you extract the best results from those that matter. That is the difference between being a persuader and being a CEO.
One is about words, the other is about deeds.” Blair added: “One other piece of advice drawn from our experience is that you will have more goodwill and more authority to do the difficult things at the beginning of your term than at the end. Let me give you an example of another emerging economy that I have spent time more recently to study. President of Indonesia was elected last year with huge public support. As a foremost businessman without link to the political elites, he was hailed as a leader who could transform Indonesia.
One of the things he did after being inaugurated last October was to slash Indonesia’s hugely expensive and inefficient, but yet popular fuel subsidy, a policy decision which had toppled previous administrations and consistently brought people out into the streets.
He decided to do it straight away. He had that goodwill and had that authority and that was the time to move. Some other discussants at the dialogue were: Dr. Ayo Teriba, chief Executive Officer, Economic Associates; Dr. Abba Kyari, Director, Mobil Oil Nigeria; Pa Lamin Beyai, Country Director, UNDP; Dr. Kayode Obembe, President, Nigeria Medical Association; Prof. Niyi Ayoola-Daniels, President, International Institute for Petroleum, Energy Law and Policy and Dr. Rilwanu Babalola, former Minister of Power.
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