In Yobe, a search for good governance

The Yobe State government, in an effort to put the state on the part of revival and accelerated development from the ruins of devastating insurgency, has organised a two-day retreat for members of the state’s executive council. This is coming in the wake of the decimation of the Boko Haram insurgents that have crippled development […]

The Yobe State government, in an effort to put the state on the part of revival and accelerated development from the ruins of devastating insurgency, has organised a two-day retreat for members of the state’s executive council. This is coming in the wake of the decimation of the Boko Haram insurgents that have crippled development in the state and the conclusion of the governorship election tribunal, which has been a major distraction to governance.
The larger part of the first tenure of Governor Ibrahim Geidam in Yobe State  had been characterized by heavy insurgency leading to the loss of hundreds of lives and property worth billions of Naira thereby leaving room for little or no chance for proper planning and executing meaningful projects that would better the lives of the people and improve the economy of the state.
With very lean resources compared to other states of the federation, Governor Geidam in his first tenure saw frustration in its raw form in that he spent most time and scarce resources dealing with the massive effects of counter-insurgency in his state. He tried to embark on projects intermittently when there appeared to be some halt in the insurgency only for the fighters of Boko Haram to resume more fiercely, destroying projects embarked upon.
With the crippling of the Boko Haram, Governor Geidam is bent on delivering essential services to the people and steer the state on the path of economic and social development in the face of scarce and dwindling resources. And a retreat for the state executive council was organized to tune the mind of those whose responsibility it is largely to be the vanguard of the new thinking in the state.
At the retreat proper, Governor Geidam recalled that in 2007 at the onset of his first tenure there was need for the state to    actualize the dreams of turning the fortunes of Yobe State around by embarking on aggressive programme of systematic reform with a view to re-positioning the institutions and services of government.
 “This was kick started with the convening of the Yobe State Socio Economic Summit in 2008 that provided us with the source materials to re-design and develop the states socio-economic reform  agenda tagged YOSERA,” Governor Geidam said. The governor further recalled that there were other reform programmes on water supply and sanitation, an area the governor said were critical for the people. There was also the programme on reviving routine immunization sponsored by the UK Department for International Development (DFID)  of which Yobe was inclusive.
Despite the state of insecurity, the Governor said: “These programmes have already yielded tremendous positive impacts on our governance system resulting in improved service delivery, transparency, accountability and standards of public financial management practices adjudged to be approximating international best practice.”
To drive home the message of development to the state exco, the state government went into partnership with DFID, European Union Support for Reforming Institutions Program (SRIP) and SPARC to educate the members on what is required of them.
Dr. Kabura Zakama, Regional Coordinator, DFID Nigeria, told the participants that as partners, they can only help, and that as insiders the responsibility to carry out programmes is strictly theirs, but this has to be based on the enunciation of policies and plans which are people-oriented, comprehensive, measurable and must have the inputs of all stakeholders – the policy makers, the implementers and beneficiaries.
The policy must be such that the programmes are sustainable, deliver results, can be evaluated and has coordination mechanism.
In its presentation, another development partner, SPARC, represented by a Consultant, Quindaline C. Eneh, underlined the vision and mission of the state, saying the vision is that of “a just and prosperous state committed to improvement in the well-being of its people” while the mission is “to mobilize and channel the state’s human and material resources guided by the principles of democratic governance to improve the social and economic well-being of its citizen.”
Eneh among other things gave targeted results of government plan to reduce poverty level by 20 per cent, improve literacy rate by ten per cent and increase the state GDP by five per cent annually from this year to the end of 2020.
The consultant who made double presentations enumerated areas that should be focused; they include economic development to be stimulated by industrial growth and medium and small scale industry to grow the IGR from N3.4 last year to N6.5b at the end of 2020, promote solid minerals development as well as health, education, water and sanitation, justice and security, among others.
Eneh’s second paper dwelt on data availability, where he stressed on the need to bother about data, consequences of lack of it, Yobe data and statistical situation and management performance. His conclusion on statistics says that “corruption thrives more in an environment without data”, and called for the development of the states statistics and strategy, establishment of central data bank and M&E-MIS, among others.
There were other presentations by other SPARC consultants such as Margarita R. Aswani who talked about objectives and expected outcomes, exco mission and functions, the governor’s management style, understanding the policy environment and understanding the ‘clients’ and stakeholders.
Aswani told the retreat at the end of his presentation that commissioners are the policy makers who ensure that the necessary budgets are there and that all the sectors are managed well.
Another SPARC Consultant Abbas Muhammad gave an insight into how to actualize government’s development objectives through better alignment of policy, plans and budgets, saying the state government can achieve development objectives through proper linkage of the policy, planning and budgeting process.
He said the linkage facilitates better budgetary outcome which addresses the challenge of resource scarcity as well as ensures strategic prioritization, and that linkage which is achieved within a medium-term framework also involves top-down/bottom-up process.
Muhammad enumerated sources that YOSERA can be financed to include statutory allocations, value added tax, IGR, loans and grants. Other papers presented at the retreat include Responsibilities of MDAs  in Revenue Generation and Remittance Towards enhanced Revenue Generation By Kabir A. Bashir and Reforming the Yobe State Civil Service to Deliver YOSERA by Prof Isaac N. Obasi. The retreat winded up with a six-point resolution, chiefly among them is that the Yobe State Economic Reform Agenda lV document should be adopted to serve as a five-year strategic state development plan.
Yunusa writes from Damaturu, Yobe State.