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One of the
specificities of Nigerian federalism is that there are no statutory
mechanisms for intergovernmental relations between the federal and
state governments. And yet, the constitution has a long concurrent list
in which the federal and state governments have joint competence in
social service provisioning in education, health and so on. The
mechanisms that have developed such as the National Council on
Education or Health are sites in which the Federal Government makes
policy recommendations to states but there are no compelling
implementation processes that flow from it.

It is in this
context that that the Office of the Senior Special Adviser to the
President on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), led by the
indefatigable Amina az Zubair, has made a major breakthrough in getting
the federal and state governments to work together in providing joint
services to the people.

The Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) are eight time-bound development goals that
were adopted at the UN Millennium Summit in 2000. They aim to –
eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; achieve universal primary
education; promote gender equality and empower women; reduce child
mortality; improve maternal health; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other
diseases; ensure environmental sustainability and build a global
partnership for development.

Taken together, the
goals seek to combat poverty and promote development. If we can achieve
these goals in a timely manner, that is by 2015, we would be improving
our human capital as well as good governance in our society, two
variables that are important for economic development.

Last week, I
participated in a review meeting organised by the MDG office on the
Conditional Grants Scheme (CGS) component of the programme in Yankari,
Bauchi State. The MDG programme was established by the Federal
Government following the negotiations with the Paris Club leading to
the payment of a part and cancellation of the other part of our public
sector debts. It compelled the government to set up a mechanism for
tagging and tracking the performance of specific poverty-reducing
expenditures in the budget. The tracking is done jointly by private
consultants and civil society organisations and the purpose is to
demonstrate the transparent use of Government resources and ensure that
the approved implementation plans for all MDGs project and programmes
are strictly adhered to; especially as they relate to coverage,
quality, outputs and outcomes at all levels.

The Centre for
Democracy and Development where I work has been involved in this
monitoring process since the implementation of the 2006 budget. At that
time, our major discovery was that the projects which were conducted by
Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies in all local government
areas in the country had no ownership. Even state governments and local
governments had no information about bore holes or health clinics being
built in their communities. There was no link between project planners
and implementers in Abuja and end users who were supposed to benefit
from them.

The MDG office
seized on this finding to propose the conditional grant scheme in which
projects were designed by state governments in consultation with
communities and proposed to the federal government which funds half the
cost and the other half is provided by state governments who implement
the programme as part of their own poverty eradication strategy.

The Yankari retreat
was an occasion to see what has been achieved so far and the challenges
that remain. One key achievement on the policy front is that most of
the state governments involved have used the supplementary resources
provided to give content to their state poverty eradication programmes
and have considerably scaled up provision of potable water, rural
clinics, ambulances, the training of health workers.

As the
implementation guidelines for the programme require community
consultation and the governments involved are aware that there will be
independent monitoring of the projects, efforts have been deployed to
ensure that they are built and operated as model projects to showcase
achievements of the state governments.

So far, over 22,000
projects in the form of bore holes, comprehensive rural clinics,
ambulances, health personnel, drugs and equipment are being delivered
and are beginning to make an impact in the lives of the people.

Some components of
the MDG programme such as constituency quick win projects designed by
National Assembly Members and the NAPEP Conditional Cash Transfer
Scheme have not been operating as effectively as the Conditional Grants
Scheme.

The lesson we are learning is the government can work in this
country if that work is monitored and a link is created between project
design and demands of beneficiaries. As we approach the 2015 deadline
for the attainment of the MDGs, the time honoured principle that
government is for the people should continue to guide the use of public
expenditure.