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A SPEECH DELIVERED BY THE EKITI STATE GOVERNOR,
DR. KAYODE FAYEMI AT THE INITIATION OF STAKEHOLDERS
WORKSHOP FOR THE EKITI STATE PEER REVIEW MECHANISM
(SPRM) HELD IN ADO-EKITI ON 11TH NOVEMBER, 2011
PROTOCOLS
It is my pleasure to welcome you to today’s event which is the
initiation of stakeholders’ workshop for the Ekiti State Peer Review
Mechanism (SPRM). I want to specially welcome my brother, the
Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi
and the Chair of the SPRM Steering Committee to the Land of
Honour, you are mostly welcome. I would also like to acknowledge
the presence of the newly sworn in members of the steering
committee present here in Ekiti State. Let me also thank our
development partners for their presence here. As you are aware,
many of them – particularly DFID – have been dependable allies in
our quest to make poverty history since the inception of this
administration.
Ladies and Gentlemen, in my inaugural speech to Ekiti People on 16th
October, 2010, I promised to make a permanent dent on poverty
through a robust implementation of our roadmap to prosperity,
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growth and development in Ekiti State popularly known
as – the Eight-Point Agenda. Item 1 on the Agenda is aimed at
improving democratic governance through the enhancement of citizen
engagement and transparent accountability, motivating the citizens
with ideas for better productivity and creating intellectual bank for
policy formulation and implementation. To achieve this, our
immediate target at inauguration was to build a virile, efficient,
effective, dedicated, value based and result driven civil service with a
view to improving its capacities and abilities at service delivery. Our
desire is to create an institutional structure that enables public service
bodies to deliver public goods and services in accordance with their
mandates, and with integrity, transparency and accountability. I am
convinced that it is in the best interest of the populace that the public
service should continuously showcase results and achievements
instead of efforts and intentions. This is what we seek to achieve
through this workshop.
To complement our determination to ensure improved service delivery
and leverage on the achievement of our various reform initiatives, the
NGF and its development partners made a presentation to the Ekiti
State Executive Council on Wednesday, 7th September, 2011 on the
SPRM process. The Council subsequently gave its approval for the
commencement of the process and we are here today, less than two
months after the Council’s approval to kick start the Ekiti SPRM. It
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may interest you to note that Ekiti State is the only
state in the South West chosen for this first phase of the exercise.
As you may be aware, I shall soon commence Town Hall and Village
Square meetings with all communities in the State as a mark of the
fulfillment of my electoral promise that every stakeholder will have an
input into the budget making and performance tracking processes.
The objective is to facilitate a bottom - up approach in budgetary
preparation as opposed to the existing top down mechanism which
has proved unproductive and unprofitable to both government and
the people over the years. It is my desire that information gathered
at the various Town Hall and Village Square meetings and this
workshop will be useful in finalizing the 2012 budget. In this regard,
we are making history in Ekiti State as the masses would, for the first
time ever, be making a direct contribution into our budgetary process.
We are convinced that for our transformational agenda to gain
traction, it must be driven by institutions and a workforce that are
merit based, focused, responsive and up to date. This is what the
SPRM would help us achieve through a forensic, clinical assessment
and in-depth appraisal of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities
and threats as well as the nature and intensity of institutional gaps in
government processes and procedures. Let me emphasize our
determination to turn the fortune of our people around for the better
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since the overall growth and development of Ekiti state is
what we promised and it is what we are committed to achieving.
It is my hope that this workshop which began yesterday with the
technical session would beam its searchlight on gaps such as lack of
delivery capacity, budgetary mistakes, weak project monitoring and
evaluation, need prioritization & assessment, lack of sectoral key
performance indicators (KPI) and absence of maintenance culture.
These are critical areas of interventions where help is needed to drive
and deepen our developmental agenda of making poverty history in
Ekiti State.
As you are aware, the Nigeria Governors’ Forum is a body of elected
Governors of all the States of the Federation with a mission to provide
a platform for collaboration irrespective of party affiliations. The
National Economic Council (NEC) in recognition of the mandate of the
NGF in 2007 resolved that the Forum should assume responsibility for
developing and implementing a State Peer Review Mechanism
(SPRM). As someone who has been involved in the Peer Review
process at the continental and national levels, there should be no
reason not to expect Ekiti to be in the driving seat of this process. The
objective of the SPRM is to assist federating states in Nigeria to
accelerate the pace of their development through periodic review of
progress in the implementation of their development policies, plans
and programmes. It is a cooperative, rather than a competitive
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initiative. Through this collaboration, States will be
able to learn from their peers about innovative and good practices
that they could adapt and adopt. Already, that process is on-going at
a rather informal level among States in this zone. We all are looking
to Lagos for its great strides in effective budget implementation, to
Ondo for its strides in maternal health, Osun for its massive youth
employment scheme, and all are looking in Ekiti’s direction for our
social security for our senior citizens and our public service reforms.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, the following are the core
service delivery sectors that will form the basis of the SPRM in Ekiti
State: Health, Education, Agriculture, Economic Development,
Environment, Infrastructure and ICT. I am convinced that, in driving
our developmental agenda, there is a compelling need to foster the
adoption of policies, standard and practices that will lead to stability,
high economic growth, and sustainable development. It is my belief
that this workshop will assist in charting the path for sustainable
development of our dear state.
The choice of Ekiti as one of the pilot states for this scheme is a
demonstration of confidence in and support for our modest efforts at
repositioning the state as a benchmark for good governance and
accountability and our steely resolve to tackle poverty head on. I am
convinced that the technical sessions have exposed participants to the
nuances of effective service delivery and good governance and they
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would be our change agents after the workshop at their
respective duty posts as we embark on this paradigm shift of
deepening prosperity and putting smiles on the faces of our people.
In conclusion, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, let me express my
profound gratitude to all the stakeholders for attending this workshop.
I also promise our continuous support for the SPRM initiative in Ekiti
State.
I wish you a very fruitful deliberation to the glory of God and the
benefit of Ekiti people.
Thank you and God bless.
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