Leadership Legislative Awards: Saraki, others make list

The essence of democ­racy is the enthrone­ment of accountable governance at all levels. At the level of the first year of this administration, clear directions have been shown by leaders as to what they have in stock for those that voted them into office. The quantum of projects may not be quite monumental at some levels especially for those office holders who are in their first term but as the popular saying goes.....
, “a good Friday is easily known by the Wednesday before it “. Centre for Nigerian Leadership Per­spective (CENLEP), a Na­tional Assembly based civil society organisation (CSO) on leadership assessment, profiling and data-bank man­agement has tried to assess the performance of the crit­ical arms/levels of Govern­ment on how they have fared.

The result of the indept, thorough and objective as­sessment of the perfor­mance of the political office holders is reproduced here as contained in a press re­lease signed by the Director-General of the Centre, Royal Prince Celestine Ekwe.

PRESS BRIEFING BY THE DI­RECTOR-GENERAL, CENTRE FOR NIGERIAN LEADERSHIP PERSPECTIVE (ROYAL PRINCE CELESTINE EKWE)

Ladies and gentlemen of the press, you are welcome to this Au­gust press briefing by the Centre for Nigerian Leadership Perspec­tive (CENLEP).

The purpose of this press con­ference are

1. To introduce CENLEP to you and

2. To let you into the imme­diate programme of this organisa­tion which we are commencing/un­folding with the press briefing.

CENLEP is a National Assem­bly –based civil society organisation (CSO) on Leadership assessment, profiling and databank manage­ment. The organisation has been in existence since the return of de­mocracy in 1999, fulfilling the criti­cal function of documenting the na­tion’s political and public service leaders for present use and for pos­terity too.

We have over the past seven­teen years or thereabout built enor­mous data-bank on individuals and institutions that have played pivot­al roles in shaping our democra­cy, public policy and leadership of our great country as they affect our public life. This includes a huge da­ta-bank on the nation’s finest tradi­tional institutions.

Our organisation is duly reg­istered with the necessary statu­tory bodies and in particular with the corporate affairs Commission (CAC).

Having led you into who we are and what we do, it is now time to take you to the second issue which is the programme we are unfold­ing today.

The centre, having been an ac­tive participant and stakeholder in the democratic experience of the fourth republic, has released the 2016 Leadership Assessment of the three arms of the federal gov­ernment of Nigeria; the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary.

We have not been involved in open assessment and publication of our assessments since 1999 because we have been enmeshed in building the data-base of the nation’s lead­ership which from the perspective we now operate was non-existent by the time democracy was restored in May, 1999.

Not only have we stabilized the operations of CENLEP, we have documentation of the following dispensations-1999 to 2003, 2003 to 2007, 2007 to 2011 and 2005 to 2015. CENLEP has also begun work in Ernest, on the assessment and documentation of this current dispensation which forms the ba­sis of the performance assessment we are releasing to the world today through the media which you gen­tlemen ably represent.

CENLEP is in a better position today to do this kind of assessment because there are comparative bas­es to make the assessment given all the administrations and dispensa­tions that have bestrode this coun­try at the federal level since 1999 as highlighted earlier in this briefing.

We are not only different in the timing of our programme. We are different in the scope of this exer­cise. Unlike many exercises of this nature that took place before, CEN­LEP in this performance assessment is including the federal judiciary and the National legislature togeth­er with executive arm of the feder­al Government. In arriving at this decision, the board of CENLEP was convinced that Leadership (which brings about the development and wellbeing of the people) is not re­stricted to the executive arm of gov­ernment just because the judiciary do not award huge contracts.

The centre is of the firm belief that institutions that stabilse the polity either through law-making, adjudicating or advocacy render as much critical services to the so­ciety as those who dispense huge contracts and patronages (a good case is the tranquillity that replac­es tensed nerves when a court of law pronounces a soothing popu­lar judgment).

Our assessment process was deep, broad, painstaking, objec­tive and merit-based. Again, CEN­LEP was guided by the conviction that in a populous nation like Ni­geria, good leaders abound, each making positive contributions in his/her domain. This informed the decision of the board to recognise many leaders in the process of this exercise. This involves recognising

a. The best performing senator from each of the 36 states.

b. The best performing member of the House of Representatives from each of the 36 states.

c. Top ten best performing minis­ters of the Federal Republic on Ni­geria.

d. The best overall ten (10) sena­tors nationally.

e. The best overall thirty-six (36) Housing of Assembly members.

f. The overall best senator.

g. The overall best member of the House of Representatives.

h. The best performing judges (10).

i. The six (6) best performing gov­ernors.

In addition to the above, the board has assessed the performance of the three arms of the Federal government under this dispensa­tion as follows; The dispensation as follows; The Executive scored 52%, the Legislative 56%, while the Judi­ciary scored 58%.

The board of CENLEP has re­frained from attaching loud noise to this recognition/ Award as done by other award givers because the people we are celebrating did not beg for these awards neither were they consulted by the Board before their selection. But at CENLEP, we are convinced that anybody who serves his community or nation well deserves to be recognised be­cause we are aware that those who lived their life for their people with­out being acknowledge have retired or died with a deep pain in their hearts.

The awards will be presented without fanfare to the awardees in their individual and respective of­fices/homes.

Thank you gentlemen of the press for your attention.