Both chambers of the National Assembly, the Senate and the House of Representatives, have critized Hajia Az Zubair's handling of the "constituency projects" that masquerade as MDG fulfillment. These projects are really just pork barrel spending to reward allies and to provide a bit of a spectacle for those citizens who approve of any politician that seems "active", even if the "activity" leads nowhere.
I have been critical of Hajia Az Zubair (and was critical in the blog post linked above). My impression of her is that she is one of those "progressives" who seem to think it is possible to operate within the system and still achieve the "progressive" goals they espouse and profess to believe. [As often when I use words like "progressive", I remind readers from outside Nigeria that "progressive" in the Nigerian political environment means something different from what the word means in other countries.]
Hajia Az Zubair does not have any real political clout. I fear she has been retained in her position by three presidents in a row (Obasanjo, Yar'Adua, Jonathan) for the same reason President Lula of Brazil kept Marina Silva in his cabinet, or General Ibrahim Babangida had Dr. Olikoye Ransome Kuti in his cabinet, or why British politicians like Margaret Thatcher or Tony Blair would include in their cabinets leaders of alternate/competing wings of their own political parties.
Hajia Az Zubair seems to believe in what she says. Of course I can't know for sure, but then that is kind of the point. She is a good communicator, and if you listen to her for a few minutes, you would be forgiven for thinking that the last three Nigerian governments prioritized social welfare and the MDGs.
If she is engaged in the time-honoured politician's trick of telling people what they want to hear even if she doesn't actually believe it, then she is very good at spin.
It is equally possible that, like other such "progressives" she believes as long as she stays in the good graces of the political powerful (and specifically in the respective president's favour) then she will be in a position to do some "good", and if that involves publicly polishing the respective presidents' images, then she would do that. The three presidents she has worked for have all given her a budget and a staff, and I think she may believe that she is better off working in the system (with her staff and budget) than complaining outside the system (I know from personal experience that complaining about stuff from the outside changes nothing on the inside.
But if it were true, and she were sincere about her work, wouldn't Hajia Az Zubair know that these "constituency projects" have nothing to do with achieving MDGs?
She seemed to acknowledge the contradiction in this interview with Economic Confidential, viz:
What of issues of Constituency Projects?
I’ll tell you what I deemed a very big challenge, but I believe we have resolved it in favour of the MDGs. It is a qualified success. And for me this is when we had to attend to constituency project. Essentially, it’s not something really that we should be doing at this level if we look at the kind of projects we are doing. But because states and local governments have not been able to provide portable water and basic education. You’ll find national assembly members who come to the federal level and have to deliver on dividends of democracy; at the local level, people will only understand what they can touch and feel, and so this become a necessity. And when we are first asked to do this by Mr. President, we had to work out a framework; how do we make this a success. Because when anybody will hear constituency projects, it may be view from negative perspective. But I think we made a success of it, we put the framework round, and we made a point of trying to engage with the national assembly, and we are been able to focus this project from health, on education, on water; and I think the big plus is that, these projects have gone to every Federal constituencies in the country. So by the time you look at the impact, is about us now trying to harmonize and report on that that there has been portable water where they’ve never been before, there have been additional classroom block where they are much needed, and there has also been a health facility. It’s not all a success story because that health facility needs to be staffed, people need access to it. So for me, the MDG is part of being a work-in-progress, this is the foundation, vision 2020 is the mid-term, and we will get to the promise land, the potential of Nigeria that we’ve talked about.
Maybe it is just my perception, but it sounds like she knows this is not what she is supposed to be doing, but has been given an order from the President and is now rationalizing it to herself and to the rest of us citizens.
I could be right or wrong on Hajia Az Zubair, but as far as the National Assembly is concerned, both chambers are dominated by the usual Nigerian politician, and as such I find it hard to take them seriously, least of all when they profess to be outraged by someone else's supposed poor performance. Physician heal thyself!
Indeed, the MDG Office had defended itself by counter-accusing the National Assembly members of undue political interference in the constituency projects ... and have said this interference is the cause of the delays and the underachievement. The MDG Office's allegations about the Assembly members are rather plausible.
It doesn't really matter though. The Assembly are looking for a scapegoat to blame for the Assembly's own incompetence. In a sense Hajia Az Zubair is a soft target, partly because she doesn't have a power base that they would otherwise risk alienating, and also because they can criticize her all they want, assured as they pillory that President Jonathan will not sack her.
If it seems that I spent more of this post talking about Amina Az Zubair than I did talking about the Assembly, it is for a simple reason. People who think they can work within the system to change the system .... are wrong, and they will find out eventually that the system is not designed to do the things they think they can do within the system.
After years of Pollyanna-like optimism about her MDG Office, it is refreshing to see Hajia Az Zubair bluntly let us know that politicians are interfering with her work. The next step would be for her to admit that five years on, the MDG Office hasn't had the impact that she had thought it would. Eight months ago, she actually said Nigeria would need to spend $170 billion in the six years from 2009 to 2015 to achieve the Millennium Development goals, which breaks down to almost $30 billion a year.
I don't know how that number was derived, but I do know Hajia Az Zubair has not had, nor will she ever be given, $30 billion-a-year to spend.
Economic growth.
Economic growth.
We need Economic growth .... not gimmicks.
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