Malam Nasir El-Rufai
Malam Nasir El-Rufai, Governor of Kaduna State, has said he supported the decision of State Assembly who rejected the the commissioner nominee who criticised his administration.
In his speech during the occasion of the swearing-in of the members of the Kaduna State Executive Council, held at the Council Chambers of Sir Kashim Ibrahim House, governor El-Rufai said:
“Permit me to put on record our immense gratitude to the Kaduna State House of Assembly for the prompt scrutiny and confirmation of our commissioners. We note that the House was unable to confirm one of our nominees. We support fully the decision of the House, as it is its constitutional responsibility to serve as a check on executive decisions and actions.
We therefore still have vacancies for the health and agriculture portfolios. We will soon present nominees for these for the consideration of the State House of Assembly”
According to the governor: “During this term, we shall seek to take the next step and move beyond skills acquisition into creating more jobs and building viable businesses. We shall support initiatives to create products and move these to the market, thus, creating a veritable and sustainable Made in Kaduna brand. Our agencies will also work to retain and build on our World Bank ranking as the Number One state for Ease of Doing Business. This is critical to our goal of driving development through attraction of investments and creation of jobs.
As you are aware, we recently launched our Urban Renewal Programme, starting with Kaduna where we are building seven new roads and upgrading or dualising 14 others.
The Urban Renewal Programmes for Kafanchan and Zaria Metropolis will follow, by the grace of God. All these align with our State Development Plan (SDP), 2016-2020. Infrastructure is crucial to economic activity and the wellbeing of our people, and we will continue to invest aggressively in transportation, water supply and electrification projects across the State”
“The foregoing are the considerations that informed the restructuring of ministries contained in the Executive Order of June 2019. Each of the 14 ministries has been designed to help drive the items on our governance agenda in line with the objectives of our party and our leader, President Muhammadu Buhari. Social justice is paramount to us in Kaduna.
Therefore, we have appointed our commissioners to represent and work for the entire state. We chose insiders so that they can hit the ground running.
That is why you can see so many familiar faces, selected for their sound education, solid experience and capacity. I thank members of the Executive Council that served from 2015-2019”
“We chose to refresh the team so that other colleagues can bring their experience from other parts of the government into the Executive Council. In fact, some of our appointees are accomplished enough to be federal ministers and even State Governors – it is certainly humbling to be state commissioners, but we thank them for agreeing to serve. After-all, no public service responsibility is too small as serving humanity is the best way to serve God Almighty. I know that for you all, you are sacrificing to serve because Kaduna comes first!”
The new commissioners must quickly settle in and deliver results. Each of you has already received and signed the job descriptions that will guide your supervision of your ministries.
These will be followed by agreeing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for each ministry, and the execution of Performance Agreements between the Governor and every State Commissioner.
Every Commissioner must in turn agree KPIs and sign Performance Agreements with the Permanent Secretary and top management of their ministries”
” All KPIs are subject to strict quarterly reviews, and any MDA head that misses targets in two consecutive quarters without adequate explanation will be relieved of the public office.
This is necessary because we must maximise the utility of the short time left to deliver social services for our people.
“I must now appeal to family, friends and associates here to support our commissioners. Family members and associates must realise that the commissioners would need their support. We thank you for the sacrifice you would make, but we urge you not to pressurise them.
They are neither rich nor in office to acquire wealth or make their friends and family rich. They will manage billions of Naira but must comply with financial regulations and due process.
Please counsel and encourage them to do right to all manner of persons without fear or favour, affection or ill-will. Remind them and indeed all of us always that genuine public service is a call to duty and we must all account to the Almighty sooner or later!”
With today’s event, we have formed the apex of the government.
But the full government is still emerging. More appointments are coming.
We have vacancies for Special Advisers, Special Assistants, Permanent Secretaries and chief executives of agencies that need to be filled from within the public service as well as from outside”
“We therefore call on all those interested in serving the state in various capacities to send their resumes to the Deputy Governor – the chief employment officer of the State – for review and consideration.
We have also recently dissolved all boards of parastatals and will soon begin appointing new board members, recognising those that have served our country, our state and party in various capacities during the recent campaigns and elections. We will not forget those that have worked hard and contributed to our quest to make Kaduna Great Again” El-Rufai said.
