Time is the most unique resource available to any person, institution, organisation or government. It cannot be stopped, it cannot be stretched, it cannot be stored, it cannot be recovered, it can only be managed. Time is life and a wasted time is a wasted life. One thing the present crop of ministers must have at the back of their minds as they get set to work is that they don’t have time. They don’t have four years to perform. They have three years, nine months to perform and this is in the unlikely event that they utilize everyday of their tenure, including public holidays, Saturdays and Sundays. I don’t want to remind them that the last one year of a regime is always used for politics, especially with regards to some of them that may be interested in contesting. So they effectively have three years to perform.
President Buhari has set the right tone for the takeoff of his 2nd term with the ministerial retreat held in the State House between 19th and 21st August, 2019 to enable the ministers-designate familiarise themselves with their colleagues while charting a course for the country for the foreseeable future. This is a welcomed development because, most often, the level of preparation determines the level of performance.
It is a great privilege for the ministers to be called upon to serve in these great offices of state and they must grab the chance with two hands and put in their best efforts as Nigeria today needs top managers to handle our numerous challenges. Mark the words of Mr President. He did not say Nigeria needs top doctors, engineers, lawyers etc, he said Nigeria needs top managers to handle our numerous challenges. This means that, no matter the profession of any person, provided he has the right managerial acumen, he can function very well in any ministry he is sent with the right environment and motivation. In this regard there’s nothing wrong with a lawyer being sent to oversee the Ministry of Works and Housing or Niger Delta or a medical doctor being sent to the Ministry of Agriculture provided that they possess the right managerial acumen. As a trained management expert, I know that at the ministerial level, what matters is the ability of the minister to combine, allocate and utilise the organisational resources of men, materials and money through planning, organising, directing and controlling in order that the organisational objectives will be achieved rather than his individual profession. The minister in most ministries are not expected to physically carry out the duties themselves, they only provide effective management.
The objectives of this government, which form the core agenda of its priorities are to secure the country, improve the economy and fight corruption. These three main objectives are geared towards improving the economy because one needs a secured environment to earn a living and the government needs to fight corruption to plug leakages. The government acknowledged that Nigerians are poor and it defines poverty as the situation where one worries about what to eat, where to live and how to pay the children’s school fees or health care requirements. The objective of the government, in this regard, is to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years.
The responsibility of ministers is to develop and implement policies, programmes and projects in their various ministries in line with government priorities. In doing this, they must ensure that the agencies under their ministries are effective, efficient and accountable in the discharge of their responsibilities.
As a student of management, effectiveness and efficiency are the two very important secrets of success which unfortunately are scarce resources in the Nigerian managerial system. Being effective means “doing the right things”, while being efficient means “doing things right”. Doing the right things means achieving the right objectives. In Nigeria, public servants spend huge sums of money towards achieving wrong objectives which do not translate to the benefits of the people. This is where all the white elephant projects belong. This is being ineffective. Doing things right is doing the right things towards achieving the right objectives. In Nigeria, public servants engage in wastages through corrupt practices in their bid to achieve the organisational objectives. This is trying to achieve the right things the wrong way. This is being inefficient. The present crop of ministers must, therefore, be both effective and efficient in the discharge of their duties if the government’s priorities must be achieved. It cannot be business as usual. Any minister who does not meet up with these standards should be replaced speedily so that the next three years will be exceedingly fruitful.
Every ministry is important. However, in consideration of the government’s priorities of securing the country, improving the economy and fighting corruption, the following ministries seem to be in the forefront. They are: Ministries of Defence, Police Affairs, Interior, Petroleum, Power, Works and Housing, Transportation, Aviation, Trade, Industry and Investment, Agriculture, Water Resources, Niger Delta, Education, Finance, Health, Mines and Steel Development etc and Justice.
We will not be able to analyse all the ministries at the same time because of the limitation of space. We will, therefore, take time to delve into the activities of each ministry as time goes on. As a resident of the FCT, I will give special attention to the happenings in the FCT from time to time.
This edition will analyse the matters that arose from the inauguration of the new ministers. One is the decision of this government to deconstruct some of the ministries. Chief among them was the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing. Four years ago, when this government created this ministry and lumped Power, Works and Housing together, I knew it was going to run into hitches, irrespective of whoever was appointed to head it. This is because the decision to lump the three components of the ministry into one ministry ran contrary to the management principle of “Span of Control”. Because of the enormity of the power supply challenges and the dilapidated state of our roads and the shortage in the housing requirements of the country, each component of the ministry would have been work enough for one minister. Lumping all of them together in one ministry in all honesty was certainly like giving a single person more than one can shew.
The management principle of span of control states that there is a limit to the number of subordinates and activities that a person can effectively supervise and manage. This principle is of ancient origin. When Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt, he was personally in control of everybody, ministry, department and agency. He was deeply anointed for this purpose by Almighty God. Yet, despite his anointing, he was limited to what he could do. Due to his limitation, the affairs of the state and his personal health suffered. He was about to run himself and the whole country aground when luckily his father-in-law visited him and revealed this secret of observing and implementing the management principle of span of control.
In Exodus 18:13-26, the Bible noted that it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses sat to judge the people alone and the people stood by Moses from the morning unto the evening. And when Moses’ father in law saw all that he did to the people, he said unto him, the thing that thou doest is not good. Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou, and this people that is with thee: for this thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself alone. Hearken now unto my voice, I will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee … thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. And let them judge the people at all seasons: and it shall be, that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge: so shall it be easier for thyself, and they shall bear the burden with thee. If thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee so, then thou shalt be able to endure, and all this people shall also go to their place in peace. So Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. And they judged the people at all seasons: the hard causes they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves.
In the last dispensation, Babatunde Raji Fashola SAN, a very brilliant and astute manager of resources was placed over the Power, Works and Housing ministry. He did his best, but at the end of the first term his grey hairs quadrupled and we did not move forward in the three areas as we ought to. He blamed it on lack of funds. But this is the secret he didn’t realise. When he presented his budget to the National Assembly, they looked at his ministry as one ministry and was reluctant to approve funds to his ministry in trillions when some other ministries could not boast of a billion naira. But if the ministry were separated into three ministries, realising the importance of power, housing, roads and other infrastructure to our national development, the National Assembly will be more willing to approve funds running into hundreds of billions for each ministry which will run into trillions for the three different ministries. In this regard we suggest that even the ministry of works and housing be split further into two to enable the ministry of works concentrate on the rehabilitation of our dilapidated roads and the ministry of housing concentrate on providing affordable houses to our teeming population.
In so doing they will get more funds approved for these important purposes as two different ministries from the National Assembly.
Another issue that ruffled a lot of feathers at the inauguration was the direction by the President that “in terms of coordination, kindly ensure that all submissions for my attention or meeting requests be channeled through the Chief of Staff, while all Federal Executive Council matters be coordinated through the Secretary to the Government of the Federation”. A lot of people interpreted this to mean that the President has ceded power to his Chief of Staff and the SGF.
Let us analyse this issue by painting this scenario. There are 43 ministers in this cabinet. Assuming that they all want to see the President with their proposals in one day, who will coordinate the meeting and the proposals? There are 24 hours in a day. Would the President be able to see all of them in a day? Who will process the most important and urgent proposals and meetings the President should entertain for the day and the ones to be shifted to the next day. This is the function of the Chief of Staff. He coordinates all submissions and meeting requests for the attention of the President to ensure orderliness in the Presidency and speed up the process of decision-making. But the SGF is in charge of the coordination of the development and implementation of the policies, programmes and projects of the various ministries in line with government priorities. The Secretary will always be in charge of the secretariat that oversees the day to day running of the administration. This arrangement enables the government to supervise the achievement of these ministries to ensure that they conform with the objectives set out at inception. That was why the President “directed the SGF to track the progress against what we have committed to do to achieve these objectives. He is therefore expected to report the process of implementation and outcome to the Federal Executive Council”.
Managerially, there is nothing wrong with this arrangement. A closer look at the direction by the President, reveals that he was not talking about the ministers reporting to the Chief of Staff or the SGF but that these offices should coordinate the activities of the ministers as the ministers report to the President. We must note however that it appears that people are complaining about this arrangement because of the likely abuse to which this arrangement can be subjected to. In the first term, we heard about a Minister of State, who could not see his substantive Minister for six months. This was wrong and we pray that as we move to the next level, this situation shall not rise again. This is why the President must choose only “able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness” in line with divine command to be his ministers.