MADAM HONOURABLE MINISTERS PRESS BRIEFING

The newly appointed Federal Minister had come to office with three decades of outstanding private sector experience and a sterling track record of accomplishments that would rival her peers anywhere in the world. I was seated in the audience of her first Press Briefing, coming just five days after her appointment. As she got up to speak, my mind drifted away. I was deeply concerned that the new Minister would struggle and was at the risk of failing, even before she started. My concerns stemmed from optics and posturing of her stakeholders – anyone with an understanding of the Public Sector understands that it has a multifarious set of stakeholders whose interests are not aligned, thus, setting an agenda for the collective public good is a struggle to balance public, political and private interests. It is an issue that public leaders rise or fall on.

While the Private Sector creates value for its

shareholders through products and services that attract and keep customers, the

Public Sector creates value for its citizens and clients through public goods

(public services, projects and programmes) that need citizens needs, ensures

the welfare, security and safety of mass public and regulates all forms of

human harms.

I was privy to several of pre-press briefing

meetings with some of her stakeholders: At a meeting with Elders from her

hometown just the day before, a list of one thousand young unemployed members

of her community had been tendered to her to secure their jobs. The Elders also

wanted her to bring some specific Federal Projects to their town; Her religious

group, had already signaled her that her was now the Chair Lady of the

Committee for the Building of a New Place of Worship (for some reason the

budget had been reviewed upwards since her appointment); the myriad of Business

and Political Leaders that had lobbied for her appointment had also presented a

list of demands, and of course, there were the monumental challenges that the

Industry which under her oversight was facing. While it would have been easier

if her traditional, cultural, religious, professional, business and political

stakeholders, simply said to her to go and serve as best as she could the

common national good, this wasn’t and hardly is ever the case.

Therefore, in many cases of poor governance

the challenge is public interest and political interest are not aligned. In

other cases, political interest is driven by the private interest that lobbies

those in positions of power. It is this complexity that creates the challenges

that the Technocrat faces in governance. They become caught into pursuing

policies and programmes that play to their political base sometimes at the

expense of general good; they are continually constrained by the private

interests that have funded or supported the political enterprise that delivered

them to office; and they are literally held hostage by the political class that

pre-determined their emergence their election or appointment, as the case

maybe.

So, what should Madam Honourable Minister do?

How does she manage her stakeholders? Is there a road map for success?