A service delivery aficionado turns 58 today, By Sufuyan Ojeifo

He enjoys the bountiful blessings of God upon his life. The totality of his life is aptly mirrored through the scriptural declaration by the Prophet Jeremiah in the book of “Lamentation”, Chapter 3 Verses 22 to 23: “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness.”

For Prince Clem Ikanade Agba, Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, the Ofevwosi of Uneme land and the Oduma of Auchi Sacred Kingdom, who turns 58 today, the lines are fallen unto him in pleasant places, and as King David consequentially declared: “Yea, I have a goodly heritage”; so, it is also for Prince Clem.

Just some weeks back, specifically on January 29, 2022, Prince Clem was conferred with the customary title of the Oduma (Lion) of Auchi by His Royal Highness, the Otaru of Auchi Sacred Kingdom, Alhaji H.A. Momoh, Ikelebe III, for his contribution to the infrastructure development of the town. As Commissioner for Environment and Public Utilities under the administration of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole in Edo State, he had delivered on some legacy projects especially in erosion control and remediation of the environment.

Advertisement

Through Prince Clem’s ingenuity in service delivery, the Oshiomhole administration had stamped its imprimatur on a grand, ambitious stormwater project in Benin, which was pivotal to solving Edo State flood and erosion challenges. He also served, at some point in his seven and a half years commissionership in Edo State, in the Land, Survey and Housing portfolio. Here, he initiated the required fundamental reforms within a record time of five (5) months, including the setup of the Edo State Geographic Information Services (EGIS).

Remarkably, while at Chevron Nigeria Limited from where he was pulled out by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole to serve as commissioner, he had also delivered on first class assignments both nationally and internationally to the admiration of the management of Chevron. In 1996, he was seconded to the Chevron Oil Corporation in Houston to deliver his expertise in Shipping. Ten years later, in 2006, he was again called upon to deliver another top-class performance in Kazakhstan, where he was seconded to Chevroil Tengiz to run a massive logistic chain, having under his superintendence over 1,600 people.

As a commissioner in Edo, he obviously dazzled his employer even as he surpassed himself in the delivery of services. The governor took note of these. President Muhammadu Buhari also did when he visited Edo State in the twilight of the Oshiomhole administration to inaugurate some legacy projects. Prince Clem, for instance, conducted the presidential delegation round the stormwater project and succinctly elucidated on the project conception and delivery. He was reportedly brilliant in his presentation. The President, also reportedly, commended him.

It was therefore understandable why he was once again tapped, on the recommendation of Comrade Oshiomhole, for ministerial appointment in the second term of President Buhari’s administration from Chevron where he retired in 2019 as a member of top management staff after his appointment as Minister of State for Budget and National Planning.

Prince Clem had passed through the mill, cutting a niche for himself in the intercourse between possibilities and the audacity to try out positive and ennobling things in the trajectory of life. He has continued to diligently pursue his mandates in the Ministry of Budget and National Planning towards achieving the overarching goal of national development. And, this, in itself, is just a cusp in his enthralling odyssey, which further validates the enduring wisdom that challenging roads often lead to beautiful destinations. Thus far, he has achieved, working in concert with other members of the federal cabinet in the executive arm, namely the standardization of the budget period by returning it to the January to December calendar. That was achieved with the 2020 budget (even in the face of the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the global economy, forcing extension of implementation of capital expenditure to March 2021). The same feat (passage of the 2021 Appropriation Bill into law in December 2020 and the 2022 budget in December 2021) has been repeated. This has gone beyond a fluke to a sustainable annual tradition.

Apart from the new budget calendar, he has successfully provided guidance and delivered on the preparation of the National Development Plans (NDP 2021-2025). He is superintending the long-term perspective plan, christened “Nigeria Agenda 2050”, which is largely, like the NDP 2021-2025, private-sector driven with government providing the enabling environment for completion of the exercise. The process has got to the homestretch.

Prince Clem has also reinvigorated the National Monitoring and Evaluation system with an “Eye Mark” web app to enable citizens monitor execution of capital projects countrywide real time. The app will be launched and deployed any moment from now. And, as part of the Monitoring and Evaluation mandate of the ministry, he has, in recent times, been up and about parts of the country inspecting infrastructure development projects under the Federal Government’s Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP), including rural roads around agro-corridors to prevent post-harvest losses; and upgrade of healthcare facilities in Federal Government’s tertiary hospitals nationwide, where the establishment of 520 Intensive Care Unit beds, 52 molecular laboratories and isolation centres has been completed in a number of locations.

The Oduma of Auchi sacred kingdom is an advocate of open governance and State Actor Co-chair of the Open Government Partnership in Nigeria. He is also co-chair of GRID3 Nigeria Project, which works across all states in Nigeria to collect accurate, complete and geo-spatially referenced data, relevant to a variety of sector. He has also delivered robust services in these areas. An aficionado of service delivery, Prince Clem is resourceful and charismatic deploying his brilliance, charisma and professional ethos in his various endeavours both in the private and public sectors. A change agent, he restlessly seeks ways of improving the wellbeing of Nigerian and Nigerians.

This is wishing Prince Clem – includinghis wife, children, grandchildren and the entire Agba family- well on the occasion of his birthday. May the good Lord bless both the years in his life and the life in his years.