Prince Clem Ikanade Agba; The Honourable Minister Of State, Budget And National Planning And The Transformative Power Of Leadership -By Dokpesi Timothy Adidi

The transformative power of leadership does not reside in noise making and politicking; but, it resides in the actions, intellectual content and character projection of a leader. Leadership by virtue of what it is has the power to transform, renew, rebuild and reenergize with the character and proactiveness that is characterized in the doings and pursuit to solve problems for the common good of all. The Nigerian society is bedeviled with the shortage of transformative leadership; and, as a Nation in distress this shortage of transformative leadership lacks the capacity to build, reconstruct and redeem itself. Nonetheless, there is a star rising from the South that understands the Deweyan philosophical approach to transformative leadership. The Deweyan seed resides in the power of transformation in one man that is beginning to standout in the formative process of transformative leadership in Nigeria.

Prince Clem Ikanade Agba is definitely not a noise maker like the usual Nigerian politician. Although, he is a Nigerian Politician; yet with exceptional qualities as an Entrepreneur, a Classical Administrator, a Manager of People, a Bridge Builder, an exceptional Management Personnel in dealing with Principles of Administration and Management; and, a Democrat in all ramification. This Edo State born Nigerian from Uneme-Uzanu a sister community to Weppa Wanno Kingdom is a child that has become so interested in the grassroots through his transformational leadership style that reflects the Deweyan philosophical approach to leadership. Prince Clem Ikanade Agba is the current Honorable Minister of State, Budget and National Planning.

His Royal Highness Pius Kadiri Ikanade Agba, the Oliola of Uzanu, was the father of Prince Clem Ikanade Agba, who was born on March 28, 1964. Despite coming from a noble family, one cannot but be dazzled with his deep sense of humility. He attended both Saint John’s Grammar School in Fugar and Saint Vincent Primary School in Auchi was attended by him. He then enrolled in what is now Ambrose Alli University in Ekpoma, where he later earned a B.Sc. in Economics in 1985. He also has two master’s degrees in business administration, one from the University of Benin with a management concentration and the other from Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona, with a supply chain management concentration. A seasoned professional with 35+ years of work experience, 25 of those in the oil and gas sector, 8 years of leave time spent working as a commissioner at the state government level and 3 years as a minister in the Federal Republic of Nigeria; he is dedicated to promoting cost-cutting initiatives and company expansion through a strategic approach to planning, procurement, and a focus on having a beneficial impact on the bottom line. He has a track record of effective negotiating and administration of high net worth projects. The Honorable Minister is commercially and strategically smart and with a track record of organizational excellence, and transformative leadership skills. The Edo State born Honorable Minister of State, Budget and National Planning will have no hiding place considering the contributions and impact he has made in Edo and the entire Nigerian State, the Edo State born Honorable Minister is a representation of what transformative leadership ought to be because of his enormous grassroots engagement in problem solving. In fact, it is these grassroots transformational leadership engagement that led to his conferment and was named the Lion of Auchi Kingdom. A title well deserved and much qualified for because of the numerous projects he has attracted to Edo State.

At the ceremony of his conferment of title as the Oduma of Auchi the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Prof. Yemi Osibanjo understands vividly the characteristics of Honorable Clem Agba and his transformative leadership agenda when he opined that our nation needs men and women who recognize and comprehend that our ethnic diversity is not a source of weakness but rather a source of strength; men and women who recognize that everyone deserves to be treated equally, fairly, and justly regardless of race or religion. This is where traditional institutions become important since they are seen as the keepers of these values and represent the best and noblest ideals of our people, and rightly so. As such, this explains that the Edo State Traditional Ruling Class (TRC) through the instrumentality of His Royal Highness the Otaru of Auchi Kingdom Alhaji Hybred Aliru Momoh recognizes values as very vital to the transformative power of leadership. Hence, the conferment was a recognition and bringing into limelight a light almost hidden into broad day light.

The conferment indeed was extremely important for the people of Edo State to appreciate the representation of the Honorable Minister of State at the Federal Government as he portrays the great values of the Edo people; and, for maintaining the culture of transformative power of leadership in a clime were leadership is abused and misused. Leadership is a skill that must be learned; but in the case of the Honorable Minister it seems his leadership is not just learned but inherited as one coming from a Royal Blood. The Honorable Minister in his personality seems to cultivate a culture that has the gene of development in him. This gene of development characterized in the personality of the Honorable Minister is a representation of the pragmatist approach to liberate people from economic poverty by providing social welfare for the people of Edo State that comes with basic infrastructure through inquiry, following the Deweyan approach of leadership that starts with a problem and tries to control or steer the transformation of an ambiguous situation into one. Just as it is popularly said that there is no hiding place for the wicked; there is also no hiding place for an asset of this nature. The Edo State born Honorable Minister cannot hide; no matter his hiding place his works and actions speaks louder than voice. We do not hear his voice; but, we are hearing his actions. In the Nigeria of today what we desire is action and works and this can easily be verified. In the Nigerian politics of today the ‘Principles of Verifiability’ is the hallmark of political accreditation. The center stage for political stakeholders is the point of verification. On this note, ‘go and verify’ about the Honorable Minister Clem Ikanade Agba.

A Honorable Minister of Verifiable Indices; as a onetime commissioner in Edo State before ascending to the level of a Federal Minister, the Honorable is known to believe in the establishment of institutions. He always sought after strong men building strong institutions to establish a democratic process that makes things work. He is very pragmatic and consultative in approach in order to make people feel the impact of their decisions. This is a reason such leadership qualities need not die a premature death. It is the onus of the good people of Edo State not to throw away such scarce natural resources in a human being and not utilize the potentials we have. The Honorable Minister indeed is our pride and guide to the transformation of Edo State; an asset that should not be wasted.

As the Honorable Minister of State, Budget and National Planning he coordinates the preparation and implementation of the Federal Government’s Budget, and supervises the preparation of long-term (Nigeria Agenda 2050), medium-term (NDP 2021-2025), and short-term (Economic Sustainability Plan) development plans, in liaison with relevant institutions at both the Federal and sub-National levels, the Private sector, Civil Society Organisations and other stakeholders; he coordinates the implementation of the National Development Plan 2021-2025. He coordinates the Monitoring and Evaluation of Major Capital Projects and supervised the development of a Web and Mobile Monitoring and Evaluation Application through citizen’s engagement called Eyemark. He also manages bilateral economic cooperation, including development aid and technical assistance programmes, Participates and Contributes to the activities of the Economic Management Team (EMT), Participates and Contributes to the activities of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), Participates and Contributes to the activities of the National Executive Council (NEC), Participates and Contributes to the activities of the Joint Planning Board (JPB), Participates and Contributes to the activities of the National Council on Development Planning (NCDP), Advises various levels of Government on the approach and pace of implementation of National Development Plans. In Edo State Government House –and as Commissioner for Environment and Public Utilities he coordinated the State Policy Management Process in the areas of the Environment, Physical Planning and Infrastructure Development; the Honorable Minister also Coordinated the Edo State Environmental Management System and Supervised the State’s Pollution Control Activities while he also managed the State’s Forest Resources and Coordinated the State’s Climate Change Activities as well.

At a point we thought no one existed; and, when we almost gave up to the existing deficiency in transformative leadership personnel; we are lucky to the emergence of one transformational leader in the Deweyan style who was recently inaugurated as a Fellow by the Nigerian Institute of Management. This became very important as one who has various experiences in developing and implementing a sustainable contracting governance model that provides best value for Chevron in resourcing and managing its contingent (contract) workforce. He also optimized the Survey Process to help improve the quality of service delivered to the customers based on what is Critical to Quality and worked with the Transportation team to right size NMA vehicle fleet to be Fit for Purpose to support services optimally. He also helped identify, prioritize and eliminate constraints within the value chain in SCM using the Value Stream mapping techniques. He went further to Streamline, Standardized and Improved the current Fuel Management Process and develops a RACI chart for implementation. He drove Cost Management Culture across NMA by implementing a tool that provides visibility, effectiveness and accuracy to all our cost management initiatives. He improved Data Quality within SCM for completeness, correctness, currency, conformity and consistency. The Honorable Minster during these periods developed a report that assist in monitoring Contract Spend /Expiration Exposure with partners and he identified data quality issues and communicate standard processes for populating identified data filed gaps. He further developed auto generating reports to appropriate stakeholders and followed up as appropriate with Advisors and Category Managers. More so, he developed a dashboard report in collaboration with corporate Market Intelligence team.

As the political climate in Nigeria is resonating and the verifiability of political candidates becomes the yardstick for political correctness and advocacy, there is no better time but now to explore the candidacy and candidature of the Honorable Minister in the Nigerian political climate. Nigerians at this point in our Nations critical and political history should go back to their states and look for transformative leaders that are verifiable and begin the Political project of restoring the hopes of our people. We need transformative leaders to solve the problems of leadership deficiency in Nigeria. The only weakness and problem in the midst of all these one has can envisage is the fact that the Honorable Minster does not make noise. Should a noiseless Minister be appreciated or disregarded? In my own opinion, we cannot throw away the baby with the bathing water. The emergence of a transformative leader is central to integral development of a people.