Ministers of Power, Defence, Education, and Solid Minerals have been rated poorly by Nigerians in the Citizens’ Delivery Tracker Apps of the Federal Government, Saturday PUNCH’s investigation has shown.

In January 2024, the Federal Government had drafted no fewer than 140 officials to track and assess the performance of the federal ministries, departments, and agencies ahead of the first assessment exercise.

The officials joined the third technical retreat for Delivery Desk Officers of Federal Ministries on the Implementation of Presidential Priorities and Ministerial Deliverables in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, which began on January 24, 2024.

A senior official working closely with the Central Delivery Coordination Unit headed by the Special Adviser to the President on Policy Coordination, Hadiza Bala-Usman, revealed that the officers, who would conduct the assessment, were drawn from 35 Federal Government ministries, departments, and agencies.

“They are considering the modalities of the assessment, the key performance indicators and the reporting mechanisms,” the official told our correspondent.

Meanwhile, in April, the Presidency unveiled a citizens’ feedback platform in a bid to get a ‘strong feedback loop between citizens and government’ on the eight priority areas of the Bola Tinubu administration.

Bala-Usman, who disclosed this at the Go-Live event of the CDT held in Abuja that month, said the creation of the application was informed by President Tinubu’s decision to assess his ministers and heads of agencies based on key performance indicators.

Bala-Usman had said the eight priority areas for the assessment of the ministers’ performances in the App include reforming the economy to deliver sustained inclusive growth, strengthening national security for peace and prosperity, boosting agriculture to achieve food security, and unlocking energy and natural resources for sustainable development.

Others are to enhance infrastructure and transportation as enablers of growth, focus on education, health, and social investment as essential pillars of development; accelerate diversification through industrialisation, digitisation, creative arts, manufacturing and innovation; and improve governance for effective service delivery.

Also, in an interview in October 2023, Bala-Usman provided extensive details about the application and its expected deliverables.

She had said, “We are going to deploy an application— a software— where citizens can report back on project-based deliverables that the Federal Government has committed to doing within the period to 2024.”

Detailing the process at the time, she said, “We sat with the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation. We have worked effectively to define exactly the deliverables for each ministry.

“Those deliverables cascade to the agencies of government. So, for example, you have the sectoral deliverables for a sector in health, and everything that is contained within the value chain or the ecosystem within that sector will be contained within the deliverables.

“Those deliverables are translated into key performance indicators for the respective ministries. Once you have your key performance indicators, you’re able to clearly understand what your deliverables are over the period of the four years of the administration.”

However, an analysis of the feedback reports from the application showed that some Nigerians rated the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu; Minister of Defence, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar; Minister of Education, Prof Tahir Mamman; and the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mohammad Abubakar, very poorly, giving each of the ministers one mark out of a possible five.

As of the time of this report, out of the 253 respondents who rated the power minister, no fewer than 176, representing 69 per cent, gave him one mark; and 34 people representing 43 per cent out of 79 respondents also gave the defence minister one mark.

Similarly, no fewer than 22 people representing 47 per cent of 46 respondents gave the education minister one mark, while 32 respondents out of 98 gave the agriculture minister one mark, and 19 people scored him zero. The four ministers only got five marks each from 20, 7, 3, and 23 people in their categories respectively.

However, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Wale Edun; the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike; and the Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, got average marks from respondents on the application.

Out of the 101 people who rated the finance minister, 32 respondents gave him five marks, 13 gave him four marks, 17 gave him three marks, 14 gave him two marks, four gave him one mark, and 18 gave him zero.

For the FCT minister, 17 respondents out of 32 gave him five marks, while five people gave him four marks, and two people gave him three marks.

Similarly, 18 respondents out of 52 gave the works minister five marks, six people gave him four marks, five people gave him three marks, and 11 others scored him zero.

Other cabinet members rated average in the application report include the Minister for Solid Minerals, Dele Alake; Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola; Minister of Sports Development, Owan Enoh, among others.

Other ministers assessed were the Minister of Labour and Employment, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha; Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris; and Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi.

In one of the feedback reports, nine respondents out of 21 gave the Minister of Solid Minerals one mark, while five people gave him five marks each. The information minister got one mark from seven respondents out of 18; the labour minister got five marks from eight out of 15 respondents, while 10 out of 27 respondents gave the marine and blue economy minister five marks each.

In the 14 feedback reports made available to our correspondent and analysed, 774 respondents had participated in the ministers’ ratings as of the time of filing this report. (Saturday PUNCH)

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