Politics

Nigeria’s Tinubu orders 47 ministers to present scorecards

Published

6 months ago

May 23, 2024

Nigerian President, Bola Tinubu, has ordered his ministers to give their performance reports to Nigerians about his first anniversary in office.

The low-key first-anniversary commemoration will be celebrated by sectoral media briefings by the 47 federal ministries beginning on Thursday (today), according to Mohammed Idris, Minister of Information and National Orientation, who made this announcement during a news conference in Abuja on Wednesday.

Senator George Akume, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, and Abubakar Bagudu, the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, joined Idris at the media briefing on Wednesday.

On March 1, 2023, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, announced that Tinubu had won the 2023 presidential contest.

With 8.7 million votes, Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress candidate, defeated PDP contender Atiku Abubakar, who received 6.9 million votes, and Labour Party candidate Peter Obi, who received 6.1 million votes.

The President said on November 1, 2023, that the ministers in his cabinet would only be allowed to stay in their positions based on performance, which would be evaluated every quarter, at the start of a three-day cabinet retreat for ministers, presidential advisers, permanent secretaries, and top government workers.

“If you are performing, nothing to fear. If you miss the objective, we’ll review it. If no performance, you leave us. No one is an island and the buck stops on my desk,” said the President.

Before the evaluation, on January 24, 2024, at least 140 officials received training from the Central Delivery Coordination Unit, the organization in charge of the assessment, on how to monitor and evaluate the performance of federal ministries, departments, and agencies.

In an April interview with the media, Hadiza Bala-Usman, the head of the CDCU and the President’s Special Advisor on Policy Coordination, confirmed that the organization has received performance reports from at least 20 of the 35 ministries. She clarified that a collaborative approach involving the ministers, public, and business experts will result in the assessment report.

Bala-Usman said, “Our submission is for the first quarter. So, the first quarter has just ended, and we have initiated the assessment process. The ministers have all been asked to submit their performance based on the deliverables.”

She stressed that ministers would be assessed “Based on what is out there in the public space. They would write to say, ‘Based on every deliverable you have given me, this is what I’ve done within the first quarter of the year.’

“Through the Citizens Delivery Tracker app, Nigerians will also say, ‘this is what we’ve seen the minister do’ and they would aggregate it.’’

To lower inflation, stabilize the economy, and draw in foreign investment, the Tinubu administration has carried out several important reforms. He brought a stop to the corrupt fuel subsidy system, which resulted in increasing gasoline and transportation expenses, food inflation, and suffering for the entire nation. The government gave the agriculture sector significant funding to combat food inflation, including N200 billion to increase agricultural production and guarantee food security.

But his reign has also ushered Nigerians into its worst cost of living crisis in decade, thus questioning the effectiveness of the reforms

Related Topics:Bola Tinubu Featured Nigeria

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Politics

Ghana’s Supreme Court reinstates ruling party’s majority

Published

2 days ago

November 13, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

The ruling New Patriotic Party regained its majority in the legislature ahead of the Dec. 7 election after Ghana’s Supreme Court declared on Tuesday that the speaker of parliament’s declaration of four seats as vacant was illegal.

Alexander Afenyo-Markin, the leader of the NPP caucus, petitioned the supreme court of the West African nation to reverse Speaker Alban Bagbin’s decision.

Bagbin had said that one member of the National Democratic Congress and two members of the NPP had resigned their seats when they registered to run as independents.

Another lawmaker with an NPP leaning filed as an NPP candidate to run for office.

Due to Bagbin’s decision, the NDC now holds 136 members in parliament, compared to the 135 held by the NPP, the party of outgoing President Nana Akufo-Addo.

The approval of Supreme Court nominees, loans, and bill enactments, as well as the presentation of a provisional budget for the first quarter of 2025, were all delayed by the indefinite postponement of two further parliamentary sessions.

In a televised decision, Chief Justice Gertrude Torkornoo declared that Afenyo-Markin’s appeal was successful by a majority vote of 5:2. She noted that the court will later submit the rationale for its ruling.

According to Afenyo-Markin, the decision permitted the parliament to return to its regular activities. Among other things, it is anticipated to approve a $250 million World Bank loan intended to support the financial industry and give corporations tax breaks.

A request for comment from Bagbin’s representative was not answered.

Although some observers predict a hotly contested election, opinion surveys suggest that primary opposition leader John Dramani Mahama will likely defeat NPP contender and incumbent Vice President Muhamudu Bawumia in next month’s election.

Politics

Senegal: PM Sonko urges followers to avenge campaign violence

Published

2 days ago

November 13, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Senegal’s Prime Minister, Ousmane Sonko, has advised Pastef party followers to exact retribution for claimed violence against them during the Sunday parliamentary election campaign.

Before a presidential election in March in some of the greatest disturbances in Senegal’s history, supporters of the prime minister, also president of Pastef, battled with police. Since Sonko’s ally, President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, won the vote, the nation has remained peaceful. He defeated then-president Macky Sall handily.

However, reports of periodic conflicts between various party supporters have surfaced recently as the nation gets ready for a legislative contest that will finally determine how much Faye and Sonko will be able to carry out their agenda.

Sonko claimed in a social media post attacks against Pastef supporters in the capital Dakar and other towns since campaigning began.

“May each patriot they have attacked and injured, be proportionally avenged. We will exercise our legitimate right to respond,” he wrote.

The text accompanied a photo of a young man showing a gashing wound on his forearm.

The first week of campaigning saw an increase in violence reported by a local civil society group involving conflicts between supporters in central Senegal and the burning of an opposition party headquarters in Dakar.

Calling for calm, the interior ministry said on Monday it had been notified of acts of violence and sabotage against party caravans and other campaign activity.

In order to stop damage, rights defender Alioune Tine asked politicians to exhibit “moderation and wisdom” in their speech and requested the interior ministry to invite various party representatives to meet.

“The verbal escalation has reached a critical threshold, we have the impression of going to war,” Tine posted on X.

Pastef is up against former ruling parties that have united ex-presidents Sall and Abdoulaye Wade into a coalition.

Dissolving the opposition-led national assembly in September, Faye accused legislators of not participating in substantive budget and other proposal debates.