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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.