Tinubu determined to run trust-based govt – Presidency
The Presidency says President Bola Tinubu is determined to run a trust-based governance system driven by citizen participation.
The Special Adviser to the President on Policy Coordination, Hadiza Bala-Usman, stated this at a panel discussion held at the Closeout Event of the Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn Programme in Abuja on Tuesday.
“This administration is keen to ensure the trust of all citizens…and we must be able to take contributions of citizens,” she said.
A public-sector accountability and governance programme, the PERL is funded by the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and has worked in Nigeria for a statutory period of eight years (2016 to 2024).
Bala-Usman, who serves as Head of Central Delivery Coordination Unit, said to engender trust, the Tinubu administration has launched innovative initiatives such as the Citizen Delivery Tracker, a tool that enables Nigerians to monitor ministerial deliverables and provide feedback.
She said the CDT ensures transparency and accountability, allowing citizens to give feedback on the Federal Government’s performance and contribute to improving service delivery.
This also stems from the Open Government Partnership which is aimed to provide structures for governance to engage citizens and facilitate dialogue.
The presidential aide also argued that the administration had demonstrated a keen interest in citizen feedback as the results from the CDT are transmitted to a performance dashboard installed in the President’s office.
She said, “So those innovative initiatives are one of the things that will foster and I think, facilitate us having a robust and innovative governance system.
“Another aspect of citizens engagement sits with, for example, we have a Citizens’ Delivery Tracker.
“This is a tool that the Central Results Delivery Unit has had over the years, which we launched last year.”
She loathed the typical pattern with political officeholders who get close to the electorate during campaign season and become distant after assuming office.
“Citizens brought us here. When people are campaigning in politics, they’re out there seated outside their car and waving at everybody. But once you’re elected, you now sit back in your tinted cars and nobody sees you, the citizens are unable to engage.
“That is how we evolve from when we’re seeking political leadership to when we get political leadership.
“The notion of isolation of citizens is what we need to consciously recognise and consciously engage. So this administration is keen to ensure the trust of all the citizens. Citizens must be able to comment on what we’re doing and we must be able to take contributions of citizens, as we seek to improve the delivery of the mandate given to us,” she explained.
In her remarks, the Development Director of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office at the British High Commission in Nigeria, Cynthia Rowe, emphasised Nigeria’s pivotal role in attaining the Sustainable Development Goals.
Rowe said the world cannot meet these goals without Nigeria’s success. She highlighted the notable results achieved through the partnership over the past eight years.
Key achievements include increased citizen participation in public resource allocation in Kano, Kaduna, and Jigawa, with two out of three FCDO focus states rated as the most transparent by the Nigeria sub-national budget transparency survey and the World Bank fiscal transparency programme, said Rowe.
She added that partner states have also developed capabilities to increase domestically generated revenues, with one state achieving an 80 per cent increase between 2019-2023.
The milestones have transformed health services, providing better Primary Health Care facilities and more health workers for communities, she argued.
Rowe noted that the PERL has supported the Open Government Partnership, with 26 Nigerian states signing up by 2023, and the Central Delivery and Coordination Unit becoming an institutionalised mechanism for measuring ministerial performance.
Meanwhile, the National Programme Manager for the PERL-ARGP (Accountable, Responsible and Governance Pillar), Mr Ifeanyi Ugwuoke, and his counterpart who is the Team Leader of PERL-ECP (Engaged Citizens Pillar), Mr John Mutu, told journalists that the programme will continue its partnership with states despite hitting eight years.
Both officials said the programme focused on core governance systems, public policy, finance, and administration as they operated in six states in the Southwest, six in the Southeast, and three in the Northeast.
Key successes highlighted include enhancing service delivery, contributing to the federal government’s ease of doing business initiative and improving budget credibility, and strengthening internal revenue systems.
