TheCable

Waziri Adio, the ace journalist and policy strategist, says the use of strategic communication facilitated his reforms at the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI). 

Adio was appointed as the executive secretary of NEITI in 2016 and left the position in 2021.

He spoke about his time at NEITI and how to get things done in the public sector during a public discourse with Patrick Okigbo III, the writer and policy analyst, on Sunday.

The discourse, monitored by TheCable, was based on ‘Getting Things Done in Government’, part three of Adio’s latest memoir, ‘The Arc of the Possible’.

Adio said after his appointment, his first task was to evaluate the seemingly confrontational approach previously adopted by NEITI and devise a more civil way of engaging stakeholders for optimal response.

“You have to find ways of engagement, there was a time when NEITI adopted that approach which is ‘let’s embarrass them, let’s shout to the rooftop’. So, by the time I got to NEITI — which at the time had existed for 12 years — I said we have done the aluta part, where did it lead us? Let’s do something different,” he said.

“So, I said let’s use a different approach that’s is driven by evidence and strategic engagement. When people do not listen to you, it doesn’t mean that they are bad people. It could mean there are other things that are engaging their attention. So, I said, how do we generate the evidence and how do we package it and how do you go across to people.”

The journalist said his experience at NEITI shows that strategic communication is one of the key things needed to improve the public sector in the country.

“In most countries that have made progress, people go to public service to serve, not to make money for themselves. Our country can be better. A different Nigeria is possible in our lifetime, not just in the future but we all have a role to play,” he added.