AN OVERVIEW OF THE TRANSFORMATION AGENDA:

THE EKITI STATE, NIGERIA EXPERIENCE

by

His Excellency Dr. Kayode FAYEMI

Governor, Ekiti State, Nigeria

During the Study Tour by Course 35 Of the

National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru

Monday, April 29, 2013

INTRODUCTION:

The appropriateness of the theme of your study cannot be more expedient than now

when our dear country is affronted with various challenges and the citizenry are asking many

questions with no convincing answers and they are gradually slipping into self-help, a

situation that has called for a “real” transformational agenda, driven by a selfless

transformational leader. I have accepted the invitation to speak because this platform

provides me an opportunity to contribute some ideas and share my views on the subject

matter with you. It is my firm belief that this will provoke further conversations outside the

confines of this place. I am convinced that this study will expose you to the multi-faceted

problems facing our dear country and also the limitless untapped potentials and

opportunities for advancement that abounds in this part of the country which if properly

aligned can be of immense benefit to all.

Since its creation in 1996, the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru

has served as a major contributor to shaping the direction of policies in the country. The

institute occupies a central space in our national life, with tremendous influence to catalyse

positive and enduring change in our great country. It is my hope that as you return to Kuru,

you will engage in peer learning discussion with your colleagues with a view to sharing

experiences and coming up with solutions and suggestions for our collective benefit.

THE CONTEXT OF ENDURING TRANSFORMATION

One major agreement in the literature on this thesis is that the ultimate goal of any

Transformation Agenda is the institutionalization of good governance that truly serves the

people. In my opinion, Institutional transformation of the scale that Nigeria needs will not

be achieved by government rhetoric. It requires willingness to restore values to the front

burner of the discourse on transformation (Fayemi 2013). It requires a willingness to lead by

example, to incarnate the values of the society that we want. In the words of Ghandi, we

must become the change we want to see. Transformation cannot be imposed from above. It

can only be generated by exemplary leadership which not only elicits emulation but inspires

the conviction that the proposed path of change in the right road5. If the goal of any

transformation agenda is to entrenched good governance, our conceptual construction would

be incomplete without briefly examining the concept of good governance.

Good governance according to Wikipedia is how public institutions conduct public

affairs and manage public resources. The IMF declared in 1996 that “promoting good

governance in all its aspects, including ensuring the rule of law, improving the efficiency and

accountability of the public sector, and tackling corruption, are essential elements of a

framework with which economies can prosper”.6

The United Nations identified eight characteristics of good governance:

� Consensus oriented; � Participatory; � Following the Rule of Law; � Effective and Efficient; � Accountable; � Transparent; � Responsive; � Equitable and Inclusive.7

In 1952, the World Bank underlined three aspects of society which they feel will affect the

nature of a country’s governance:

(i) Type of political regime; (ii) Process by which authority is exercised in the management of the economic and social

resources, with a view to development; and

(iii) Capacity of government to formulate policies and have them effectively implemented.8

Other good governance indicators identified by the World Bank are as follows

(a) The process by which those in authority are selected and replaced (voice and accountability: political stability and absence of violence);

(b) The capacity of government to formulate and implement policies

(government effectiveness; and regulatory quality); and

(c) The respect of citizens and state for institutions that govern interaction among them (rule of law: control of corruption).

Nevertheless, “there is new empirical evidence that governance matters, in the sense that

there is a strong causal relationship from good governance to better development such as

higher per capita incomes, lower infant mortality rate and higher literacy” On the other hand;

bad governance is responsible for inequality, poverty and undesirable socio-economic

outcomes.9 In this regard, Collier (2007) opined that bad governance is one of the “Four

development traps”. The other four traps are conflict, natural resources, being landlocked with

bad neighbours).

Maseko argued further that with proper institutions of governance and regulatory

frameworks, nation States will be able to improve performance in a number of key areas.

One notable area is the protection and promotion of civil liberties. Good governance is also

about proper stewardship of the country’s resources. Therefore, conceptualization of good

governance as an aspect of stewardship is consistent with the definition of good governance as

a “process referring to the manner in which power is exercised in the management of the affairs of a

nation”.10

There is also a consensus around the world that good governance denotes the “political and

institutional processes and outcomes that are deemed necessary to achieve the goals of development”

(Fayemi 2013).

Conclusively, it is clear that “real” transformational leadership and good governance are

mutually exclusive. The challenge in our country today is how to construct an acceptable

pathway through which the transformational agenda can engendered good governance real

time and translate in tangibles for the benefit of the citizenry. We have to move beyond

sloganeering to constructive and people oriented policies that are real and measurable.

REVISITING INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORKS AND THE TRANSFORMATION

AGENDA:

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, the essence of any transformation agenda is

creating the greatest happiness for the greatest number of the citizenry in any society. I have a

strong conviction that for any transformation agenda to serve the need of the majority and

meet their expectations, the importance of regulatory frameworks to nurture and regulates its

functions and processes cannot be over-emphasized. This paper will briefly interrogate the

synergy between these frameworks as it affects the transformation agenda taking into

cognizance the earlier identified TRAs with a view to identifying areas of strains and stresses

and also elaborate on the Transformation in Ekiti State since my assumption of office for

your consideration.

Regulatory framework in this context refers to significant rule, whether legislated or freely

adopted, as well as standards, specifications, best practices that effectively influence conduct

within a system or State.12

For the purpose of this lecture, I shall divide regulatory frameworks to both formal and Quasi

formal. The formal regulatory institutions in a democracy include but not limited to the

Legislature, Executive and the Judiciary, while the Quasi-formal regulators are the electorates,

civil society, trade unions, traditional/religious institutions, the Armed Forces and the Press.

The Parliament is an important link in the chain of accountability between government and

the people, 13 if and when the parliament plays an effective role it can lead to what is referred

to as the three interlocking dimensions of humane governance that ensures the health of the

whole. One critical area where the Parliament can be an effective regulator is in the area of

parliamentary oversight which refers to the legislative surveillance of the executive arm of

government. This power is largely exercised through the committee system. It also occurs in

a wide range of legislative activities and contexts. These include authorization, appropriation,

investigative and legislative hearings by standing committees14. Legislative oversight authority

is derived from the implied powers in the constitution, public laws and extant rules of the

legislature. It is therefore an integral part of the doctrine of check and balances. In

recognition of the import of this very important function and to strengthened the capacity of

members of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, our government has consistently support their

exposure to both local and international capacity building and parliamentary support

programmes. This is exemplified in the relationship between the Ekiti State House of

Assembly and the Gauteng Parliament in South Africa. Another novel initiative introduced

is the regular Executive/Legislative parley which provides the platform for regular

conversation between the Executive, Legislature and members of the National Assembly to

share ideas and build consensus on major government policies and programmes.

The Judiciary is also an important regulator. The function of this very important arm of

government is stated in Chapter VII of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of

Nigeria. To be able to perform this regulatory function, the Judiciary must be truly

independent. Judicial Independence as a concept is defined as a system of keeping the

judiciary from undue influence by other arms and branches of government15. The principle

of judicial independence is one of the cores of the justice system. Their values include

fairness and justice, efficiency of the judicial process, access of justice, public confidence in

the courts and financial autonomy, for the Judiciary to be truly independent, a combination

of institutional reforms of the processes of appointing Judicial Officers, their discipline and

promotion coupled with a sincere attempt on the part of government to enhance their safety

and condition of service driven by political will on the part of the political leadership are

imperative and germane. In Ekiti State, we have embarked on various judicial reforms to

properly position the judiciary to meet the challenges of our time. We have also put the

issues of capacity training, welfare and humane working environment on the front burner. It

will interest this gathering that for the first time since the creation of this State, our Judges

just returned from a capacity enhancement tour of South Africa and we intend to pursue this

with vigour in the years ahead.

As you are aware, I head the executive arm of the government which is the hub of policy

formulation and implementation. There is an adage from this part of the country that a fish

gets rots from the head. The nature and character of the leadership of the executive will

determine the place of such government in history and its impact on the people. I shall

explain the Ekiti Transformational Agenda to you in due course but it is suffice to state that

on assumption of office myself and my late Deputy without any prompting publicly declared

our assets and I make bold to say that there is no political appointee in this state that has not

done same. We have also signed into law the Fiscal Responsibility Law and Freedom of

Information Law and put in place a robust procurement system. This is to make government

accountable, responsive and responsible. Members of my government are constantly

subjected to periodic assessment through the Office of Transformation, Strategy and Delivery;

we shall come to that later.

As opined earlier, other equally important regulatory frameworks in a democracy are the

electorates through periodic election, civil society, trade/labour unions, traditional and

religious institutions, the Armed Forces and the Press. These critical bodies if well structure

could at any point in time galvanize and mobilize public opinion for or against any public

policy. A critical example is India, where the armed forces in spite of the frequency of regime

change continue to defend their constitutional democracy. In Nigeria too, labour/trade

unions have played a very active role in the moulding of public opinion against obnoxious

government policies.

OVERVIEW OF EKITI STATE TRANSFORMATION AGENDA:

I have earlier argued that far before we were elected into office. I and my team understudied

the Ekiti situation and came up with our own solutions based on the information available to

us at that time. This resulted in our road map to Ekiti Recovery. The 8-Point Agenda which

is our own antidote to poverty reduction because our study revealed that poverty is endemic

and must be confronted for meaningful development to take place. I shall explain in due

course our modest achievements in the pursuant of the 8-Point Agenda.

To provide a launching pad for our affront on poverty, we embarked on a holistic reform of

the institution for policy formulation and implementation in the State. To ensure prompt

service delivery across the State, we established the Office of Transformation, Strategy and

Delivery (OTSD) with the aim of re-shaping how government functions, re-engineering its

processes and systems in order to ensure the implementation of government’s developmental

programmes in a more effective and efficient manner. The Office focuses on quick-win

actions that ensure the delivery of the agenda of the administration, and long term visioning

and strategic thinking of various developments alternatives that guarantee sustainable and

accelerated improvement in the lives of the people.

This office also assists in breaking down bureaucratic barriers impeding policy

implementation and also embarks on a quarterly assessment of MDAs in respect of their work

plans and Key Performance Indications. We also created the Ministry of Budget, Economic

Planning and Service Delivery from the erstwhile Ministry of Finance, Budget and Economic

Development with a view to transforming the budgeting process and put the people on the

front burner of policy formulation. For the first time in the history of Ekiti State, the

Governor on a yearly basis convokes village square meetings before budget preparation to ask

the people what their needs are. Budgetary options since I became governor largerly are

reflections of the outcomes of such conversations. This is a radical departure from the usual

top bottom approach where government officials allocate resources to the citizenry without

their inputs. Our budgetary processes are driven by MTEF with fiscal projection of revenue

using macro-economic assumptions at three levels of likelihood. Namely:

(i) Baseline revenue with up to 95% confidence level.

(ii) Plausible revenue with up to 60 -75% confidence level.

(iii) Optimistic revenue with up to 30 – 40% confidence level.

The levels of revenue then guided the prioritization of capital projects. Another initiative

embedded in the budget was the adoption of a result based budgeting method as against the

historical incremental approach, by this method MDAs actually justified their revenue and

expenditure proposals to ensure efficient allocation of public fund to priority sectors. We

have also created the Ministry of Rural Development and Community Empowerment to

address the needs of the people of the grassroot levels.

Let me provide a few concrete examples of what we have been able to achieve through our

transformation agenda in the last two years.

In the area of governance, our goal was to enhance participatory governance and

accountability, thus motivating the citizens with ideas for better productivity, and creating an

intellectual bank for policy formulation and implementation. In this bid, we have taken a

number of crucial steps and recorded important achievements.

For example, for the first time in the history of the state we established a regime of legislations

to guarantee a predictable environment of good governance and promote transparency and

accountability. We domesticated the Freedom of Information Law, therefore, in our state,

citizens have the right of access to government documents which are not classified – the first

state to so do and we also enacted into law a Fiscal Responsibility bill, a Public Procurement

Legislation, a Public Private Partnership Law and a Gender Based Violence Prohibition Law

amongst forty new legislations passed into law. For the first time in the 16 year history of the

state, which was created out of the old Ondo State in 1996, we have replaced the Edicts and

Laws of the old Ondo State with the laws of Ekiti State.

Second, we adopted a merit-based system of appointment and promotion of civil servants,

including at the highest levels of the bureaucracy. The chief bureaucrats, including the Head

of Service, Permanent Secretaries, and the Accountant-General, were all selected through an

open and competitive process. In an environment which had been dominated by

patrimonialism and clientelism, this was a transformative step and it has led to the

rejuvenation of the civil service, such that we now have civil servants who are capable of

driving the people-focused policies and programmes of the government. We also focused on

increasing the revenue base of the State by reducing our dependence on what comes from the

Federation Account.

We also instituted a social security benefit scheme – the first of its type in any state in Nigeria.

This is backed by law so as to ensure continuity. It is therefore now a scheme of the

Government of Ekiti State and not merely the policy of my administration. Based on this

scheme, we give monthly stipends to indigent citizens over the age of 65 years. We currently

cater for over 20,000 senior citizens in the State. This is in addition to our Free and

Compulsory Education programme up to senior secondary schools and our free health

programme with focuses on the vulnerable segments of our population – children, the elderly,

pregnant women and those with physical disabilities.

In terms of Infrastructural Development, our goal is to establish optimum communities that

will improve the lives of citizens and attract investment. Our target is to ensure that every

part of the state is accessible by major roads by the end of our first term – which is in two

years. This has never happened in the history of the state. We are also making water dams in

the state functional so as to increase water supply by eighty per cent (80%), while using the

public-private partnership to increase generation and supply of electricity. In the last two

years, we have focused on urban renewal through many projects. We have embarked on

massive road construction and expansion, rural electrification project in communities that

previously had no electricity; we have established a State Ambulance Service unit which is

able to respond to emergencies; we have provided portable water and water treatment plants

to many communities.

Agriculture employs about seventy-five (75%) of our population. Therefore, agriculture is at

the centre of our programmes. Nigeria used to be a world leader in cocoa production up to

the early 1970s. In fact, the enlightenment project re-started by the late colonial era

indigenous government in our area of Nigeria was partly based on the economic resources

derived from the sale of cocoa. Ekitiland in south-western Nigeria was an important part of

cocoa production. That ended from the late 1970s. We are now reviving cocoa plantation to

make Ekiti a world leader again in this area of production. This will generate employment for

tens of thousands of our citizens, particularly the youth and also focusing on cassava, rice and

oil-palm. We project that 20,000 of our youths would have been trained and employed in

mechanized agriculture by the end of our first term in office. We also project that agriculture

will contribute fifty per cent (50%) of our internally-generated revenue. To achieve this, we

have improved the conditions of or farming in the state, thus guaranteeing effective

cultivation, harvesting and processing of agro produce.

We want agro-business to thrive in our state and change the fortunes of the state as well as

those of our citizens. Towards this end, 15,000 farmers have been assisted through the supply

of agro-chemicals and fertilizers. This has led to the cultivation of several thousands of

hectares of land. We have funded overseas training for agro-workers in cocoa rehabilitation

in Indonesia and China; we have refurbished the Orin-Ekiti cassava processing plant and

upgraded the plant output from 10 tonnes to 60 tonnes per day under a private-public

partnership with Vegefresh Agro-Allied Company. We have also rehabilitated and

constructed many kilometers of farm access roads; cultivated and supplies 500,000 cocoa

seedlings and 60,000 oil palm seedlings to farmers at highly subsidized rates, and collaborated

with British America Tobacco Nigerian Foundation and FADAMA III project in the

construction of a $1 million cassava cottage industry which has created jobs for about 3,000

women and more than 1000 youths.

In the area of education and human development, out target is to put a computer on the desk

of every secondary student by 2014, while providing free and compulsory education up to

senior secondary school level, including special initiatives for the physically-challenged

students. We have delivered 17,512 computers to teachers and 33,000 Samsung solar laptops

through the Ekiti State E-School Project. We have invested vast resources in the last two years

on knowledge acquisition and skill development to enable our citizens to work effectively in a

rapidly changing and complex global environment. Our investments in human capital

represent our most critical intervention in the process of state reconstruction in Ekiti State.

Other accomplishments include the complete refurbishment of all the public secondary

schools in the state; procurement and distribution of furniture as well as science and sports

equipment to all public secondary schools across the state. We have also sought to improve

teacher quality whilst successfully merging the State’s three universities into a better funded

single state university. Other initiatives focus on skills based technical and vocational

education in the State. (There are several other initiatives that I can discuss during the

question and answer session).

Human development is not sustainable without massive investment in healthcare delivery,

which include capacity building and infrastructure and staff welfare and disease control.

Therefore, in the area of Health Care Services, we have been providing, in the last two years,

free medical services for children, pregnant women, the physically – challenged and senior

citizens. We have also established health centres in all localities, while increasing

immunization coverage. This year, we have embarked on our ‘Operation Renovate all Health

Centres and Hospitals. More crucially, we have embarked upon a strategic re-development of

health management information systems while embarking upon the rehabilitation of health

training institutions. We have greatly improved maternal healthcare, disease control, while

also making the regulation of private health institutions more effective. Through our

investment in medical school achieved a 90% success rate in the national Nursing

Examination. We have constructed a new Accident and Emergency wing in the Ekiti State

University Teaching Hospital, while also creating a State Health Data Bank. We have

renovated and extended the secondary healthcare facilities in the State, and enacted the

Primary Healthcare Development Agency Act. Our health sector indices vis-avis the national

average bear testimony to the significant steps being taken in the health sector. Ekiti has one

of the lowest maternal and child mortality rates in the country, the lowest HIV prevalence

and the highest life expectancy in Nigeria.

To be able to generate employment, development and empower the citizens to pay taxes, we

have been providing the enabling atmosphere for industrial development. To jumpstart this,

we have create technology and industrial parks for small and medium scale enterprises,

established micro-credit facilities for promising entrepreneurs, while also promoting agro-

allied and solid minerals sectors. We also plan to make Ekiti State a most attractive

destination for relaxation and holidays by developing the Efon, Okemesi, Ikogosi and Ipole-

Iloro tourism corridor, a heliport, and world class hotel and accommodation facilities. We

are incredibly blessed by nature in Ekiti State. For instance, we have the Ikogosi spring where

both natural warm and cold water flow from the hills to the valley. I encourage you to visit

Ikogosi to enjoy this most fascinating and unusual blessing of nature.

Our administration is just concluding the re-development of the first phase of the Ikogosi

Warm Spring & Resort as the flagship of the tourism industry in the State. About 116

hectares of land was acquired for this new Resort, with plans for theme parts, spas, high-

attitude sports academy, resourcecentre for women, golf course, entertainment centres, and

sports academy. The hotel part of the Resort will be a 150-room branded international three-

star hotel. We plan to spend N1.5 billion in creating a mini-paradise in the Ikogosi Warm

Spring & Resort. No doubt, it is now a place that the world will come to and enjoy the

beauty of nature. Electric power is very central to jump-starting the local economy, especially

in the area of agro-processing which is our focus and we are working on the development of

independent hydro and solar power generation in the State.

Finally, in the area of gender equity and empowerment, we are committed to promoting

gender equality and empowering women to maximize their potentials. In this context, we

reserve no less than one third of all appointments and promotions for women, while

mobilizing resources to attend to issues of concern for women from maternal health and child

care to employment and freedom from abuse. Specifically, I signed into law, the Gender-

Based Violence (Prohibition) Bill in November 2011, making Ekiti State, the first state to

domesticate this law in Nigeria. We also domesticated the national Gender Policy, while

providing skills acquisition programme for out-of-school girls, supporting girl-child education

and inaugurating the Family Court for the implementation and administration of children

and family matters.

CONCLUSION:

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, having spent the last eight years in partisan politics and

participating in grassroots organizing and state reconstruction, my belief in the need to take

politics beyond political parties is more reinforced. Our immediate challenge is to concentrate

on how to rescue our people from bad governance. Unless the critical mass of our people

cutting across age, gender, zones and party affiliations adopt the same positions, with a more

clearly defined collective agenda, the current transformation efforts will not suffice. There is

an urgent need to build coalitions and permanent platform in the public sphere that is

beyond party and personalities, but all embracing enough to those who subscribe to the core

value of integrity, honesty and dedication to transformation in Nigeria.16

This all embracing platform could address a variety of issues, but none is more urgent than

the question of the structure of the Nigeria State.17

In spite of all the challenges, I am hopeful in Nigeria future. I strongly believe that we can

revive the Nigerian State in a qualitative manner and make democracy more meaningful to

our people, provide jobs for the jobless, improve healthcare, modernize agriculture and

reclaim our young people from a future of violence decadence and despair by linking social

enterprise, civil society activism to politics and not draw artificial divisions in our promotion

of value-driven leadership. We need leaders who have a clear vision of the future, well

prepared, who see character as destiny, who advocate value-driven orientation, who do not

just mouth transformation. We must move away from transactional to politics to

transformative leadership.18This is our covenant with the people of Ekiti State and we are

pursuing this with all vigor. I am proud to say that in Ekiti State, we are running a

government that is participatory, transparent, consensus-oriented, inclusive, responsive,

efficient, effective, accountable and one based on the rule of law. Many independent bodies

continue to attest to this and the latest is the Special Report on Africa in the Economist

Magazine of London, which states as follows about Ekiti:

“Better governance is creeping beyond the metropolis.

When your correspondent emails the governor of Ekiti

State in impoverished central Nigeria, he gets a reply

within minutes, with the entire cabinet copied in … Cabinet

members are highly motivated and have private sector

experience. A new employed agency sends out job

advertisement by text message. All secondary school

pupils are getting free laptops with solar panels. All civil

servants, including teachers are tested annually; those who

foils stand to lose their job… To be sure, sort

government of governance is still an exception

(The Economist, March 2nd, 2013).

I thank you for listening.

Dr. KayodeFayemi

Governor