Nigeria’s Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Abubakar Bagudu, has pledged stronger collaboration between federal officials and the Akwa Ibom State Government to advance national development goals and strengthen governance.
In his remarks during the Akwa Ibom State Government’s ARISE Agenda two-year scorecard presentation, Senator Bagudu praised the governor’s decision to present a mid-term scorecard, calling it “both laudable and commendable” within Nigeria’s political landscape.
“This is a state that will compete with the Netherlands in agriculture, and it can. It has all the ingredients, so that speaks to the consistency of the strategy and the agenda.”
He aligned Governor Umo Eno’s Arise Agenda to President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, pointing out that both are grounded in measurable, accountable strategies.
“When President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu unfolded the Renewed Hope Agenda, which incorporated elements like, let us confront our reality, we are not where we want to be, let there be no blame game, but let us have a strategy which we can speak to, for which we can be held accountable, and which we can interrogate. And today we have ARISE, or rather we have listened to ARISE, which is in a similar way.”
While commending the governor for opening up his administration’s ARISE Agenda for interrogation, Bagudu said, “Here is what we have done in two years. I’m inviting responses; acknowledging that I have done well does not mean I cannot do better! Congratulations, Your Excellency, and well done for that humility.”
Stressing the importance of sound methodology and data independence, the minister commended the state’s decision to establish its statistical agency.
“You made the important point of collaboration, but also the important point of states having their statistical agencies, which you have done. Methodologies, sample sizes are things that have to be interrogated and have to be understood,” Bagudu said.
He also added that the recently unveiled Renewed Hope World Development Plan, which aims to identify at least 1,000 economically active individuals in each of the 8,809 wards in Nigeria for private and government enterprise support in financing and private capital, is already happening in Akwa Ibom State through the ARISE Agenda.
He also lauded the government’s congenial environment that is enabling all Nigerians resident in the State to thrive, remarking:
“Your actions and what I saw today reflect deeply held beliefs. We are a federation, and not necessarily a competitive one, but constitutionally a cooperative one. Arise is the choice that you made, an excellent choice for the people of Akwa Ibom, but more than the people of Akwa Ibom, also for Nigerians.”
The minister pledged that the federal government would share Akwa Ibom’s development model with other sub-nationals, not for direct imitation, but as encouragement to develop equally consistent and coherent strategies.
“I feel comforted sitting there because I saw one of the elements towards a trillion-dollar economy, and because we are a federalism, because we are responsible for monitoring and evaluating all state plans, this is something that we will share with others, not to copy from (but to be encouraged so that they can evolve their strategies that they will speak to consistently).”
Also speaking, the Statistician General of the Federation, Adeyemi Adeniran, said the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) would work closely with the state to verify all data presented under the Arise Agenda.
Represented by Austen Anyakorah, Director, Corporate Planning & Statistical Coordination, he said; “We are open to collaborations in all areas of statistics, especially to validate what we are presenting here,” committing that the Bureau will partner with the state to compile its Gross Domestic Product (GDP), develop a Consumer Price Index, and measure inflation locally, in line with the NBS’s mandate to maintain the national statistical system.