When Niger hosted SSGs’ retreat

Alhaji Yayale Ahmed, SGF Secretaries to the state governments across the country recently met in Niger State to strategise on issues affecting governance at the state level. Dipo Laleye was there.

To many, the secretaries to the state government and the Secretary to the Government of the Federa-tion (SGF) are political appointees that should be seen and not heard To others, they are the clearing agents for all government activities, and this thus makes their office very important.

Governor Muazu Bbabangida Aliyu, who was for several years a federal permanent secretary, believes the secretaries to the state governments or the SGF ‘are engine rooms’ of their governments because ‘while other political appointees can afford to fail, the secretaries to the government cannot afford such a lapse, as doing so will lead to a ‘collapse’ of the government they serve.

Governor Aliyu also believes that with a “good, sound and dynamic secretary to the government in place, nobody can understand the weakness of the government.”

The secretary to the government, therefore, should be the right hand man of the chief executive, being the first person to see the governor every day and the last to leave him, according to Governor Aliyu.

Speaking at a retreat organised by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation for the secretaries to the 36 state governments, Dr. Aliyu and the SGF, Alhaji Yayale Ahmed, were unanimous in the view that the Secretary to the Niger State Government, Dr Mohammed Kuta Yahaya, “is a round peg in a round hole,” an embodiment of all the qualities expected in a person occupying such an office.

But for Kuta’s managerial capability and perseverance, Alhaji Ahmed said, he would not have attended the retreat, describing the Niger State scribes “as a source of joy to us, and an inspiration to the up and coming generation.”

Governor Aliyu, on his part, said that most of the colleagues of his scribe were asking for his head only because he “has not allowed things to get bad with the administration because ‘he is a workaholic.”

Aliyu said he was not worried about the criticism of his secretary, which he said was a strong indication that he had been doing his job, saying ‘the very day people start to praise you, then you must know that it is either you have compromised your principles or you are no longer doing your job as expected’.

At the retreat Dr Aliyu also praised the SGF, Alhaji Ahmed, whom he said “is the most experienced civil servant working for the federal government, adding that Ahmed “is so experienced and patient that he can make people do what they will ordinarily not do.”

Governor Aliyu told the participants that they should draw from the experience of the federal government’s scribe to give their states the required leadership that would make the people to enjoy dividends of democracy from their chief executives.

“You should be bold and courageous in the discharge of your responsibilities,” he said, adding that they should also be firm in decision making because no matter what they did they would never satisfy everybody.

He said why most secretaries failed in their assignments was because of the fear that they could lose their jobs but added that “that nobody, I repeat, nobody can remove you from your position if God has not destined it, not even your Principal. If you are removed, you are removed because the day God appointed for you to go has come, and certainly not earlier.”

Governor Aliyu challenged the participants as the unseen governors of their states and high quality professionals to be objective and professional in carrying out their duties.

“You must note that your jobs are not public relations jobs, as you don’t have to be seen to be “nice”, otherwise you will lose focus and subsequently fail in your responsibilities. You also have a duty to constantly draw the attention of your principals to matters of state importance and to ensure the full implementation of all decisions/resolutions reached at the state executive council and other national policy directions,” Aliyu further advised.

Aliyu described the theme of the retreat as ‘apt and timely’ because the country was marking 10 years of democratic governance, an opportunity to appraise what had been done over the last 10 Years and especially in the last two years of the administrations at the state and federal levels.

“I hope that this retreat will provide the ample opportunity for us all to review our achievements as a nation in the last decade as well as the challenges and constraints in meeting some of the goals that we have set for the government,” he said.

The SGF, in an address, said the retreat was to specifically review the gains of previous decisions, especially those that had to do with the “implementation of Servicom; the utilisation of the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) funds; anti-corruption crusade of the present administration; annual budget preparation and NEPAD/APRM, among others.”

Alhaji Ahmed expressed the hope that the retreat would provide an ideal opportunity for SSGs to reflect, re-dedicate, commit, and strengthen inter-governmental cooperation between the federal and state governments.

“It also provides us a veritable forum for frank exchange of ideas and views on how our various administrations can best deliver on their mandates with a view to actualizsing good governance and economic growth, thereby bringing about visible and significant improvements in the quality of life of our people,” he said

He, therefore, implored the participants to support the commitments of “our various administrations to the principle of honesty, accountability and transparency in the conduct of public affairs at all levels of governments.”

In a communique issued at the end of the retreat, the government scribes emphasised the need for the prioritisation of the 7-point agenda of the federal government for effective implementation of the policy.

They also suggested that states should be carried along from the conception stages through the implementation of projects under the Millennium Development Goals funds, so that the needs of the people would be relised.

Signed by the Secretary to the Government of Lagos State, Princess Aderenle Adeniran-Ogunsanya, the communiqué also stressed the need for the Servicom office to be established in all the 36 states of the federation.

Thirty one secretaries to state Governments and Alhaji Ahmed attended the two-day retreat, which had as resource persons the new Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Minister of Finance, among others.