His contempt for laziness is undisguised. And God continues to thrust on
his laps assignments that require experience, hard work, commitment and
tact to accomplish. Over the years, he had successfully honchoed some
flagship responsibilities both in the private and public sectors. His
position as a member of Nigeria’s Federal Executive Council (FEC)
lends credence and validation to his profile in hard work. In addition
to hard work is the factor of providence. Welcome to the world of Prince
Clem Ikanade Agba, minister of state for budget and national planning,
who takes time off on Saturday, March 28, 2020, to unwind on the
occasion of his 56th birthday.
Even if the occasion is low-key, in consideration of the COVID-19 global
pandemic, it will, nevertheless, serve as a good break to his daily
routine of immersing himself in files to ensure that his table is
cleared and official processes are not slowed down. It is
characteristic of Prince Clem to take home unfinished work or pending
files to ensure that all issues are dealt with expeditiously. Most
times, even after a long overseas trip, he still resumes work the same
day while in some other times, he ensures he catches the last flights
just to attend to official matters.
Brilliant, charismatic, disciplined, sound worker, proactive,
result-oriented in every human endeavor, the first test of his resilient
spirit was the expeditious passage of the 2020 budget. On assumption of
office in August 2019, he was evangelical about the desire of the
Federal Government to return Nigeria to the January to December budget
cycle for better planning, performance and resource allocations. Working
hand-in-hand with his sister and colleague, Minister of Finance, Budget
and National Planning, Mrs Zaynab Shamsuna Ahmed, as well as synergizing
with the federal legislators, the 2020 budget was passed, signed into
law by President Muhammadu Buhari and became operational from January
2020, thus ending the plethora of hitherto haphazard budget cycles since
1999.
The certainty of the budget cycle enables states and local governments
to plan as well. Furthermore, it assists Official Development Assistance
(ODA) to align programmes and support to Nigeria’s priority areas.
Significantly, deploying little resources in achieving more is Clem’s
essential philosophy since assumption of office as Minister of State for
Budget and National Planning. How to get value for money expended by
government, with the reduction or elimination of leakages, is his
preoccupation. To achieve this, he is sharply focused on strengthening
the monitoring and evaluation capacity of the Federal Government to
enhance efficiency and effectiveness of service and project delivery.
This is one area about which Prince Clem is very passionate.
It is therefore also not surprising how quickly he is working with his
other colleagues to develop short and medium-term strategies/programmes
to navigate the current resource/revenue challenge due to the slump in
oil prices from the benchmark of $57 per barrel to -$30 per barrel. He
is optimistic that government will deliver critical priority services
and projects even with the limited resources once leakages have been
eliminated and efficiency/effectiveness enhanced.
Clem also swung into action in assessing and developing short, medium
and long-term programmes of rehabilitating and enhancing the quality and
performance of the parastatals under his leadership: National Bureau of
Statistics (NBS), Nigeria Institute of Social and Economic Research
(NISER), Center for Management Development (CMD) and the Budget Office
of the Federation (BOF). These programmes included improved funding,
rehabilitation of dilapidated facilities, building and enhancing the
organizational capacity of the various organizations, among other
things. He recently toured most of these facilities, held town hall
meetings with the leadership and staff members to collate, synthesize
and prioritize their issues. This is a demonstration of servant
leadership.
Furthermore, within such a short time since assuming office, Clem also
championed the Nigeria Road Safety Strategy (NRSS) II (2019-2023). This
is an integrated road safety strategy anchored on the five pillars of
the United Nations’ decade of actions, namely: effective road safety
management, safer roads, safe vehicles, safer road users and post-crash
care response. He provided support and input to the development of the
strategy and also chaired the technical session of all the relevant
stakeholders in the transportation field at a close out workshop
recently in Abuja. His performance and knowledge of the issues and
strategies at the session were outstanding even to the amazement of
stakeholders and participants. At the workshop, Clem asserted that
although the country had made tremendous commitments and progress in the
implementation of the first edition of the Nigeria Road Safety Strategy
(2014-2018), “each road death leaves families and friends bereaved
with its own particular story, pain and misery.”
A team player and an advocate of “power of one team” for better
result., Clem has continued to strengthen executive/legislative
collaboration. He recently facilitated and participated actively in a
two-day retreat/workshop on the budget process for both the National
Assembly (NASS)/ Budget office of the Federation where he championed the
imperative for one team in the development and execution of budget to
achieve critical priority goals. It was also an opportunity for him to
continue to canvass an effective and efficient utilization of revenues
and prioritization of various critical projects in identified key areas.
According to him, “we are currently too thinned out, i.e. we spread
out our little resources in so many areas with little or no project
delivered. Through such collaborations, we can all agree on priority
projects and provide adequate funding to deliver them for the good of
the people instead of having uncompleted projects all over the
places.”
Clem is saddled with the responsibility of providing leadership in the
preparation of a Medium-Term National Development Plan (MTNDP) 2021-2025
and a Long-Term Plan called “Nigeria Agenda 2050” (Perspective plan)
to replace the two plans that will be expiring at the end of this year
(2020), to wit: the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) 2017-2020
and Nigeria Vision 20:2020.
Considering his background as a consummate professional with over 30
years in the private sector, his achievements within such a short time
were not surprising. To be sure, he spent 29 of those years working for
Chevron, a high-class multinational oil and gas company operating all
over the world. Due to his distinctive performance in Chevron Nigeria,
Clem was seconded to Chevron Oil Corporation in Houston in 1996 to
showcase his expertise in Shipping. In the year 2006, he was again
called upon to deliver another top-class performance in Chevroil Tengiz
Kazakhstan, to run and manage a massive logistic chain with over 1600
people.
As soon as Clem was brought back to Nigeria by Chevron for a higher
responsibility, he was called upon in 2009 by Edo State government to
serve as Commissioner under Comrade Governor, Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole. He
joined the Rescue Team that took Edo State to an enviable height in
governance and development. He served as commissioner for about seven
years at various ministries such as Environment and Public Utilities;
and, Lands, Survey & Housing. As usual, he displayed strong leadership
and initiated fundamental reforms in the various ministries such as the
setup of the Edo State Geographic Information Services (EGIS). He was a
member of Edo State Economic Team and Chairman of Edo State Tenders
Board (2009-2012). In line with the Governor’s vision, Clem championed
the urban renewal and drainage infrastructure drive as well as the
sustainable forest re-generation initiatives of the administration. He
was also pivotal to the solution to Edo State flood and erosion
challenge.
Recipient of many awards in both professional, social and community
services among which are National Award of Excellence in Leadership,
Save the Ozone Award of Excellence in Environmental Management;
Diversity Ambassador of Chevron Corporation; Recognitions and awards
from the Uneme National Development Union, among many others, Clem was
born to the family of His Royal Highness, Pius Kadiri Ikanade Agba- the
Oliola of Uzanu. A well-educated technocrat, he has two Masters Degrees
in Business Administration, one from the University of Benin, Benin-City
with specialization in Management and the other from Arizona State
University, Tempe, Arizona, the USA with specialization in Supply Chain
Management. He obtained a B.Sc Economics degree in 1985 from Bendel
State University, now Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma.
He is married to Princess Catherine of the Obaseki royal family of Benin
Kingdom. They are blessed with four lovely boys. Although they would
have loved to have a lovely girl, they had to stop at four boys in dread
of his grandma’s assertion that he would have nine boys first before a
girl. However, the girls have started coming with two lovely
daughters-in-law already. Enjoy your anniversary, Prince Clem!
· SAM CHIJIOKE EKWUEME IS SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO THE MINISTER OF
STATE FOR BUDGET AND NATIONAL PLANNING.__
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Sufuyan Ojeifo
SA Media to the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning
+234 8034727013 +234 8023024800
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