In a recent appearance on Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily, former Presidential aide and veteran journalist Laolu Akande has called on President Bola Tinubu to closely monitor the performance of his ministers.
Akande’s remarks came in response to a question regarding the impact of the Presidential Retreat with Ministers on governance and the expectations of Nigerians.
The President recently convened a high-profile retreat, titled the “2023 Cabinet Retreat for Ministers, Presidential Aides, Permanent Secretaries, and Top Government Functionaries,” which took place at the State House Conference Centre in Abuja.
“It creates a forum where the President can do two things. One make his agenda very clear to the ministers and how serious he is about delivering. Secondly, it shows the nation that the President and his team have a way to kind of organize some kind of measurement and evaluation. I think for those two reasons, it’s very important to gather around and into this thing,” Akande explained.
“But what I think is even more important is the fact that if you listen to the speech of the president, he did say that he’s not perfect. And that’s a very important thing to say because as we find out, the work of nation building, the work of national development will often require all hands on deck.”
“That is why it’s very important for the president to do two things. Number one, keep an eye on ministers on a very regular basis. And then secondly, he himself has to open himself up to critical views. Look, this is a democracy; you cannot shut yourself out from people or sources where you can be spoken to directly, especially because of your own pedigree as a progressive and as a democrat.”
Shifting his focus to a recent controversial appointment, Akande addressed the appointment of Eketamba Umoren as Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Akwa Ibom. The appointment stirred controversy as Umoren had previously served as Secretary to the Government and Chief of Staff to Senate President Godswill Akpabio during his tenure as Governor of Akwa Ibom State.
“I make this point that Nigerians must understand that this is a democratic system. If the government does something that is not acceptable, Nigerians have the power to stop it. You cannot have, for God’s sake, somebody who served the Senate President as a Chief of Staff. Secretary to the government. You cannot bring that guy to INEC.
“We have over 200 billion people in this country. It is completely unacceptable. And if Nigerians insist the president, will have to rescind
Responding to a question about why the Buhari administration didn’t create a Result Delivery Unit (RDU), Akande clarified that the Buhari administration had established RDUs but cited poor communication as a hindrance to making their achievements widely known. He stressed the importance of effective communication in ensuring that key performance indicators (KPIs) and their corresponding timelines are transparent and accessible to the public.
Akande’s insights underscore the significance of transparency, accountability, and public engagement in the democratic process, urging President Tinubu to consider these principles in his leadership of the nation.
“ They did, the communication lines just got blurred at a point. I remember that the president did set up a delivery unit in the office of the Secretary to the Government Federation and one in the Presidency, but the communication of it was not effective and so nobody knows what what the results are.
“They don’t talk about the result. If you set a KPI, you must give a timeline and when the time comes people must know that this has been achieved and this has not.