The Niger Delta Rights Advocates, NDRA, has expressed support for President Bola Tinubu’s plans to reshuffle his cabinet as announced by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to the President.
The NDRA recalled that it had previously called for a cabinet reshuffle earlier this year.
In anticipation of the president’s move, the rights group is urging that the Policy Coordination and Central Delivery Coordination Unit, CDCU, under the Presidency, remain free from political interference.
According to the NDRA: “This is the only way a proper Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) of the performance of ministers, who are the salesmen of the administration’s policies and agenda, can receive fair and trustworthy assessment.”
In a statement issued by its Head of Research, Chuks Alozie, NDRA also called for transparency in the criteria used to evaluate public officials, including cabinet ministers.
It argued that public disclosure of these factors would foster greater accountability and ensure that the evaluation process is open to scrutiny.
Citing the implementation of the Steve Oronsaye report, NDRA proposed that the Ministry of Police Affairs be reintegrated into the Ministry of Interior.
“The NDRA wishes to propose that as part of strategy to implement the much talked about Steve Orasanye report on the harmonisation of MDAs and to help government cut cost, the Ministry of Police Affairs be integrated into the Interior Ministry under Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo as the Ministry under Dr Tunji-Ojo has delivered on the critical elements of good governance and public accountability, which has increased citizens’ trust in the present administration.”
The group emphasised that the performance of ministries should be assessed “in terms of the level of achievement of the objectives of each ministry (effectiveness) or the level of costs incurred to achieve these objectives (efficiency).”
It said further: “We believe that the Interior Ministry under the current administration has hit that mark and signposts efficiency for a public agency.
“Furthermore, we challenge the Policy Coordination and the Central Delivery Coordination Unit (CDCU) to publish its benchmarks (tools/indicators) for further public scrutiny and contestation of logic in order to ensure that those public officials who fall terribly below bar, do not even get the chance to hold public offices in future (whether elective or appointment).
“It will also help ruling parties to cascade the idea of properly scrutinizing persons they nominate into public offices going forward.”
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