TheCable

Boss Mustapha, secretary to the government of the federation (SGF), says he takes delight in watching US President Donald Trump contesting powers with governors in the country.

Andrew Cuomo, governor of New York had been at war of words with Trump over policies put in place to contain COVID-19 in the US. 

At a briefing on Thursday, Mustapha who chairs the presidential committee on COVID-19 said the pandemic has exposed the deficiency in governance and this is not limited to Nigeria alone. 

“I’m not saying that we will not do what we are supposed to do, but when it comes to comparison, I’m always reluctant,” he said. 

“I would compare vis-a-vis what I know is handy in place and can be operational. In this regard, I received the proposal on master strategy for optimum performance for civil servant post COVID-19, and when I looked at it I knew it was appropriate and it’s a thing that we should use to retool our civil servants and public officers to be futuristic in their thinking to better their service delivery. 

“And I believe strongly that is one major lesson that will come out of the COVI-19 experience, because what it has done to us as a people and as a nation, and it has done to the entire world is that it has exposed the weaknesses of every facet of our systems. Not only Nigeria, even the major economies, has exposed the deficiency in their health structure, it has exposed even our governance structure. 

“I always take delight when I listen to CNN and I hear the president of the United States contesting authorities with governors and mayors of states. They’ve had democracy over two centuries, but they are still contesting as to who has the powers to apply in certain areas. 

“So, COVID-19 has even exposed those weaknesses, and we are not unmindful of that.” 

The SGF said if anything would happen to Nigeria, it should be taking the experiences of all these deficiencies that have been exposed and work on them to build a formidable country.