Peer Review: Setting Agenda For Governors

In a bid to make gover

nance practically relevant to Nigerians and  make the people active participants in the development process, the 36 state governors in the country, converged in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, to interact, under the aegis of State Peer Review Mechanism on July 12 and 13, 2012. The conference was centred on strengthening cooperation, and fostering healthy interaction and competition among the governors in the country.

Organised in collaboration with the Rivers State Government, the conference afforded governors the opportunity to appraise policies and programmes of the different states to enable them learn from each other’s experience.

SPRM is an initiative of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, NGF, aimed at bringing about development in all sectors of the society as well as enhancing democratic dividends in Nigeria. The scheme is designed to work through co-operation and sharing of experience.

Although, none of the 36 state governors was physically present at the two-day event, the occasion witnessed heavy presence of dignitaries, including representatives of state governors, top government functionaries, technocrats, members of the academia, notable professionals, stakeholders etc who took turns to address participants.

Speaking at the conference, the chairman of the Steering Committee of SPRM and a former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mohammed Uwais, said the workshop heralded the commencement of the implementation of the SPRM in Rivers State. He stated that it was geared towards sensitising all stakeholders on the methodology, objective and indicators of the assessment process which would assist the state to move to the next phase.

He commended the Governors Forum for the initiative which would make it feasible for all governors, irrespective of party affiliation to share experiences and promote co-operation among themselves. He was optimistic that the SPRM project would lead to a significant development in the country.

“The workshop formally heralds the commencement of the implementation of the process in Rivers State. It is geared towards sensitising all stakeholders on the methodology, objective and indicators of the assessment process. SPRM is a unique innovation by state governors geared towards assisting and accelerating the pace of development through periodic reviews of progress and the implementation of their development programmes,” said Uwais.

The Rivers State Governor, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi, represented by the state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Hon. Wogu Boms, explained the aim of the Peer Review project and said it was not established to compare the performances of state governors, rather it was initiated to promote good governance. He assured participants who had doubts about the sincerity of the workshop that government had not organised it to achieve a pre-determined goal. He, however, urged them to ask the government questions on critical issues.

“Government can only be as open as it is inside. The government has not organised the occasion to achieve a pre-determined action, “ Amaechi assured.

Complementing Governor Amaechi’s clarification on the aim of the SPRM, the representative of Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State, Mrs. Ayo Obe, in a keynote address, stated that the SPRM was conceived by the Nigeria Governors’ Forum as an instrument to assist states to enhance the pace of their development through periodic reviews of progress in the implementation of their development policies and programmes.

“State Peer Review Mechanism is not a score card or finger pointing exercise, rather it is an instrument for improving governance and fast-tracking development in Nigeria. It is an indication to all stakeholders to collaborate to bring about development,” Obe clarified.

Prof. Alex Gboyega made a presentation on the SPRM process where he identified 247 indicators of the process. He advised the state to use available data from sources such as National Bureau of Statistics to form its data base. He instructed the state to submit a roadmap on how to achieve the self-assessment report and also develop a work plan. Gboyega told stakeholders to voice their opinions because, according to him, “this is a stakeholders’ forum.”

Speaking in the same vein, Mr. Chinedu Eze emphasised the 247 indicators of the process and identified public finance and education sectors as some of them. He spoke on the topic. “Framework of indicators”, and advised all permanent secretaries in the state to acquaint themselves with the indicators. He said both the self-assessment report and the data collection process had to be factual and based on paper collected by sectoral indicators.

“The self-assessment report needs to be a factual document based on paper collected by sectoral indictors. The data collection process also informs the role of stakeholders, “Eze indicated.

Stakeholders representing different segments of the society participated at the workshop. While some of them justified the setting up of SPRM as well as the workshop, others were pessimistic about the workability of the SPRM since it lacks the powers to sanction governors who perform below par.

A former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Port Harcourt and the immediate past chairman of the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission, RSIEC, Prof. Nimi Briggs, vindicated the establishment of the SPRM by the Nigeria Governors Forum, describing it as a radical departure from the past ways of governance.

He recalled his days as chairman of RSIEC and claimed that the commission did its best by doing what was right. Prof. Briggs told the participants that RSIEC, under him, documented the two election conducted by the body, where the government was told what was right or wrong about the electoral process.

He, however, presented the books to the steering committee and stated that it would assist them in their recommendation on the conduct of local government election in the country .

“As an umpire of RSIEC, I made sure I did the right thing. I thought it was my responsibility to document the two election conducted by the commission. In that documentation, we told government what was right and also told people what it should expect from that commission. We were given two opportunities to conduct general election. We wrote two reports on the election we conducted. I will be presenting these two documents to your commission with the belief that they are rich in information”, Briggs declared.

The President of Physically – challenged for Development, Mr. David Edewor, criticised the Rivers State Government for its unfair treatment of disabled persons in the state. He bemoaned the exclusion of the physically – challenged from the state scholarship scheme and wondered why the bill on the physically-challenged passed by the State Assembly had not been signed into law by the governor.

According to him, disabled persons were in need of special schools, particularly for those of them that were unable to attend the regular schools. Edewor decried the current employment status of disabled persons in the state and described it as appalling. He, nevertheless, urged the Nigeria Governors’ Forum to sustain the current campaigns against polio.

“Why we advocated for special schools is because disability is of various categories. Persons on wheel –chair and crutches can go to the existing schools, but those schools should be disabled – friendly…. The issue of employment should be properly addressed. Out of 50 persons that graduated from school, only two are employed, the rest are jobless roaming the streets”, Edewor stated.

Giving his vote of thanks, the Director-General of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Mr. A.B. Okauru, commended participants for their patience. He deplored the absence of state commissioners and other top government functionaries from the occasion.

He, however, observed that those who spoke were full of praises for the governor. For him, governors should be commended when they did well and be challenged when they failed, in order to elicit the best from them.

“Praising them all the time means they are perfect and no leader is perfect any where,” he added.

Arnold Alalibo