Editorial|9 January 2020
On Tuesday 6th January, #NegroidHaven published its first editorial piece for 2020 titled: An Appraisal of the CEO in Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State (https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1222609127934116&id=314791978715840) where it said it would be embarking on a twelve series editorial. What you are currently reading is the first edition of that series.
In this editorial series, our news house in assessing the CEO status of His Excellency the Executive Governor of Cross River will do so under such broad themes, namely, leadership and management. For the records, this is not just an evaluation of the Ben Ayade administration, but a framework for assessing any public office holder as it were especially in Nigeria. The framework of our valuation is published here — https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d1O33KnEX6U4D8fab17Bk0fWkjW5q0NTEj0AJQI0JFXZ8/edit?usp=drivesdk. And it's called A Framework for Defining and Assessing Public Office Holder's Performance.
Under the category —leadership, the first feature of assessment is —Supervision. Meanwhile, by leadership it is meant 'how well a public office holder can build interpersonal influence and how they influence the behavior of others to enhance individual and collective performance'. In the same vein, supervision measures the ability to guide and direct work methods and roles.
So, the question is —how well has Governor Ben Ayade demonstrated leadership by playing supervisory roles over Commissioners of Ministries, Special Advisers/Senior Special Assistants/Special Assistants of Departments and Executive Chairpersons/Director Generals of Agencies/Commissions?
It must be agreed that if there must be a supervision, there must be a Terms of Reference ToR against which the activities of the aides of the must be appraised objectively. If ToR implies the scope and limitation of an endeavour or body of knowledge according to which the purpose and structures of an activity, committee, meeting, and/or negotiation is defined it seems to me that broadly inferring the Medium Term Expenditure Framework MTEF, the Appropriation Law, other laws of Cross River State and the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as Amended constitute the ToR of/for Cross River State. However, strictly implying the MTEF and the Appropriation Law are the state's ToR. So, how well has Ayade supervised his aides using these instruments?
According to news sources, there was an MTEF for 2017 through 2019: https://nationaldailyng.com/ayade-assents-to-2017-budget-adopts-a-3-year-mtef-model-for-capital-expenditure/ With the MTEF, it implies there's a Fiscal Strategy Paper FSP. This is commendable. Though we've not had for 2019 through 2021. With this there was a foundation for supervision by His Excellency.
In terms of the Budget, in 2016 we'd Budget of Deep Vision (N350 billion), while in 2017 we'd Budget of Infinite Transposition (N707 billion). Whereas in 2018 it's Budget of Kinetic Crystallisation (N1.3 trillion), as 2019 was Budget of Quabalistic Densification (N1.O43 trillion); while in 2020 it's Budget of Olympotic Meristemasis (N1. 1 trillion). To what extent were these budgets implemented? Has our economy been bolstered? Are we faired any better economically? Are we a prosperous sub national? The answers are yours to decipher? If these economic projections are only imaginary, a mere utopia; and whereas there were ministries, departments and agencies/ commissions who had sub-heads in the budget to implement, it stands to reason that these MDAs failed to translate elements in the economic blueprints into concrete realities. Could they have been efficiently supervised by His Excellency and they couldn't articulate the Budget? Doesn't this undermine the supervisory genius in Ayade the CEO?
Supervision also requires presence. If the CEO isn't present, especially for the one that sees to the day-to-day running of the organisation, then leadership is at stake. Between 2015 and 2019, Governor Ayade was reported to have engaged in globe-trotting the universe signing illusory MoUs looking for pariah investors that would never show up. In fact, at a point he was said to have stayed more outside the state than he did within the geographical boundary of the state he was elected to govern. According to reliable information, between 29 May 2015 and 16 August 2016, Ayade had travelled to over 30 countries searching for investors within one year! https://m.facebook.com/story.phpstory_fbid=10210562692133740&id=1539365606.
This appraisal of the supervisory-leadership capacity in Ayade hinged on ToR (MTEF and the Appropriation Law), and Presence. Based on the argument, how do we measure the ability of Ayade to guide and direct the work of political administration in Cross River? You can rate Ayade between 1 (no expectation), 2 (fair expectation), and 3 (high expectation).
