President Bola Tinubu is expected to receive a report detailing the performance status of the Federal Government’s Ministries, Departments, and Agencies, MDAs, for the first quarter of 2024.
Sources within the presidency, familiar with these developments, have indicated that this report will serve as the foundation for the President’s evaluation of his ministers.
“What I know is that an interim report on the performance of the ministers has been submitted to the President and the report for the first quarter is being prepared,” a source who preferred anonymity revealed.
A second source, who also did not want to be mentioned, debunked speculations about some ministers being marked for a sack, describing them as rumours.
“People are carrying those rumours all over the place. May 29 is just weeks away, if the President is shaking up his cabinet, we would know by now,” the source said.
On April 8, 2024, Hadiza Bala-Usman, the President’s Special Adviser on Policy Coordination and head of the Central Delivery Coordination Unit, CDCU, confirmed that the CDCU had received reports from at least 20 of the 35 ministries.
She elaborated that the first quarter assessment report would be the result of collaborative efforts between ministers, citizens, and industry experts.
Bala-Usman clarified, “Our submission is for the first quarter. So, the first quarter has just ended, and we have initiated the assessment process. The ministers have all been asked to submit their performance based on the deliverables.”
She asserted ministers will be assessed based on what is out in the public space.
“They would write to say, ‘Based on every deliverable you have given me, this is what I’ve done within the first quarter of the year.’
“Through the Citizens Delivery Tracker app, Nigerians will also say, ‘this is what we’ve seen the minister do’ and they would aggregate it,” the presidential aide said.
She also revealed, “The ministers have all been asked to submit what they’ve done in the first quarter. We have received submissions from about 20 ministries. We’re expecting the remaining and then we’re going to conclude the assessment and make a submission to the President.”
In October 2023, Bala-Usman announced that January 2024 was the ideal month to begin the exercise as all ministries would have received their budgets for the 2024 fiscal year.
“We’re looking to commence an assessment of the respective ministries in January 2024. We’re going to have a quarterly assessment of performance, which would culminate into an annual scorecard,” she said.
During the opening of the three-day Cabinet Retreat for Ministers, Presidential Aides, Permanent Secretaries, and top government functionaries on November 1, 2023, President Tinubu emphasized that ministers in his Cabinet would only maintain their positions based on performance, subject to quarterly reviews.
“If you are performing, nothing to fear. If you miss the objective, we’ll review it. If no performance, you leave us. No one is an island and the buck stops on my desk,” said the President.
On January 24, 2024, the CDCU trained at least 140 officials to track and assess the performance of Federal Ministries, Departments, and Agencies, MDAs, ahead of the assessment.
A senior official working closely with the CDCU said the officers were drawn from 35 federal MDAs.
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