New Niger Agenda: Transformative Vehicle to the Promised Land?
When Chief Olusegun Obasanjo assumed Nigeria’s leadership in 1999, Nigeria’s economy was in crisis. However, by employing a competent team and deploying robust frameworks like the defunct National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategies (NEEDS), the administration took its growth rate from 2.58 percent in May 1999 to 6.06 percent in May 2007.
Furthermore, Nigeria’s middle class, which became extinct or, at best, camaraderie for the sixteen years that the military held sway in the political landscape, staged a return in Obasanjo’s era. It’s part of human nature to be amnesiac, and so you might be excused for forgetting that owning a colour TV was a big luxury before 1999, not to mention owning a car and enjoying other trappings of the middle class that folks began to take for granted when Obasanjo’s frameworks and their implementation restored Nigeria’s middle class in the country.
And here in Niger State, the government of Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu created Vission 3:20:20 as the compass to guide the state to its envisaged destination in the year 2020. MBA assembled eggheads that created the roadmap that was Vission 3:20:20, and although the roadmap wasn’t strictly followed, some achievements were recorded. For example, under Policy Thrust 4: To Improve the Standard and Sustainability of Quality of Life; Meeting Housing Needs and Improving Urban Services, which states that the government will continue to provide low-cost houses under PPP arrangements in urban and rural areas, the MBA government built the MI Wushishi Estate, the Talba Estate in Minna, and similar ones in Bida and Kontagora, which has helped to address the housing needs of some Nigerians. In the same Policy Thrust 4: Improving Health Care Services, the government built general hospitals in Nasko, Gulu, and Sabon-Wuse, which has helped to bring healthcare services closer to the people.
The document encapsulating Vision 3:20:20 presented Policy Thrusts 1 to 5. Policy Thrust 1 aims to move the Niger State economy up the value chain; Policy Thrust 2 aims to raise the capacity for knowledge and innovation; Policy Thrust 3 intends to address persistent socioeconomic inequality constructively and productively; Policy Thrust 4 is for improving the standard and sustainability of life; and Policy Thrust 5 is to strengthen institutional and implementation capacity that will power Nigerlites.
The document also had an elaborate sectoral strategy, action plan, and implementation plan covering agriculture, transport, education, water and sanitation, environment and sustainable development, information and communication technology, urban and rural development, science and technology innovation, housing, manufacturing, and agro-allied development, among others.
Abu Lolo’s era was characterised by shooting in the dark, touching here and there, and moving on slowly, unsure of the target, and here we are after eight years of near lethargy. But truth be told, it wasn’t all gloom and doom in Abu Lolo’s era. Minna-Kataeregi-Bida Road rehabilitation was started in his first tenure, though not through the channel that MBA initially wanted, and so snail speed characterised the progress of the work even when its quality is topnotch. And now, with a solid team on the ground and a return to the original channel meant for its reconstruction, it is envisaged that both the strength of the road and the speed of its execution can be assured in this dispensation.
It should also be stated that during Abu Lolo’s era, civil servants and pensioners’ monthly entitlements were promptly settled. You may be excused for not rating this as an achievement if you’re not blessed with a gift of empathy or if you’re not one of the tens of thousands of direct dependents or hundreds of thousands of indirect dependents of civil servants or pensioners in a state like Kogi during Governor Yahaya’s Bello’s era.
This piece is not about a single project or civil servants’ remuneration, but about the imperative of the New Niger Agenda as a vehicle for the transformation of a state with so much promise but so little progress. The zeal of his Excellency, Umar Bago, the Farmer Governor, as he wants to be addressed, for transforming Niger State into a modern state within the federation of Nigeria is pretty obvious.
Hitting the ground running soon after assuming office and expressing the many, many projects he wanted to undertake, I began to wonder if scarcity hadn’t ceased being a basic economic problem in society. In fact, at a point, I had to google'scarcity’ just like I did when MBA assumed office recently to check if the hypothesis of a political economist friend of mine, Dr Kamar Hamza of IBBU Lapai, about scarcity never being an economic problem of society had gained global currency. And this is another reason why Bago needs to encapsulate his vision in a document that will guide the implementation of his dream. Already, the Niger State Planning Commission has realised the importance of a framework in this regard and has relayed a digital questionnaire to the citizens, eliciting input about the New Niger Agenda.
In fact, given the magnitude of the Governor’s zeal and the beginning of the translation of that zeal on the ground, a robust implementation framework for Bago’s projects and vision becomes an urgent imperative, and the signs are that the New Niger Agenda is better approached as a programme than as a project.
Gladly, we can save ourselves the trouble of reinventing the wheel if restructuring it will serve the purpose of reinvention. Since Umar Bago’s vision and Talba’s desire seem to align, the Vision 3:20:20 document can be modified and updated to have a New Niger Vision Document (NNVD) or just a New Niger Vision (NNV).
Agriculture has a prime place in both Vision 3:20:20 and Bago’s New Niger Agenda, but the approach and size of the targets vary. However, a similar template could be employed in the production of the New Niger Vision. The Vision and Action Plan for the Agricultural Sector of Vision 3:20:20 is a matrix of thirteen columns and numerous rows. The column headings include Initiative/Programmes, Activities, Time Frame & Cost, Organs Responsible for Implementation, Resources Needed, Intervention Strategies, Expected Changes, How Often to Measure Progress, Organs/Persons Responsible for Tracking, Indicators to Show Progress, and Funding Options. The Initiative/Programme Colunm, for example, has the objective of accelerating the production of crops, especially rice, maize, guinea corn, groundnut, yams, and cassava, by 100% and carries out about thirteen activities. The objective of increasing the production of livestock and fisheries has nine major activities and some sub-activities. Other sectors in the state are similarly covered. Like I said ab initio, the New Niger Agenda Document needs to only improve on this, as reinventing the wheel may not be necessary.
However, the New Niger Agenda should have an institutional structure with a manager, chairman, or coordinator at the helm. The head should have an experienced M&E advisor and other relevant officers to help deliver on the tasks and keep implementation on track. The work of this New Niger Agenda structure should not preclude the regular functions of established organs and should, in fact, complement or enhance them.
Mamun Mallam, a Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, works as a development practitioner in Niger State and can be reached at almamunmahb@gmail.com or via 08036085067.