Before commencing this article, permit me to start with a few prefatory remarks. Exactly one month ago (precisely on Friday, April 3, 2020), I started a series with a hidden theme titled: COVID-19 pandemic and Public Policy Response in Nigeria, with the goal of publishing an opinion article every two days. This goal inter alia was to help me make the best of what could have probably been a lockdown-induced boredom. With providential enablement, this goal is being achieved perfectly well since then. I celebrate this one month today with immense gratitude to the Founder/CEO of Sundiata Post Media Group, Mr. Max Amuchie, for offering this online newspaper platform. Above all, I give God the eternal glory for sparing our lives in these very unpredictable times.
Again, it is very fitting that I dedicate a topic to the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 pandemic, the institutional engine room for Nigeria’s coordinated policy response to the ravaging pandemic. And lastly, by providential coincidence, today is exactly the one year memorial of my beloved mother-in-law, Ezinne Monica Ogbonne Eneh (Nee Emehel) of Umuezechime, Udi town, Enugu State, whose remembrance announcement comes immediately after this article.
COVID-19 pandemic as a war against humanity creates an emergency situation by its dynamics. This emergency situation in turn requires an emergency approach to manage and contain the virus. An emergency in common dictionary parlance is a serious situation that requires prompt or immediate action. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) however, an emergency is a term describing a state, and as a managerial term, it demands decision and follow-up actions of extra-ordinary measures. Emergency, the WHO added, requires ‘a threshold values to be recognised, and it implies rules of engagement and an exit strategy’. Put differently, ‘an emergency is a situation that poses immediate risk to health, life, property or environment’, and would therefore require ‘urgent intervention to prevent the worsening of the situation’ (Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia).
Under emergencies, times are not normal and this suggests that in governance terms, extra-bureaucratic measures may be necessarily put in place to respond quickly to situations and prevent escalation of the problems so created. In normal times, a bureaucracy (i.e. civil or public service) commonly referred to as Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in Nigeria, is the subsisting conventional machinery for implementing government policies. However, in ‘abnormal’ times as in this COVID-19 pandemic era, this long-established and traditional structure is usually found to be inhibitory for timely and effective policy implementation, because of its rigidity, lethargy, conservativeness, and sometimes it is unnecessarily very legalistic. Consequently, in times of emergencies, extra-bureaucratic bodies such as ad hoc commissions and task forces may be established as a result of these dysfunctional elements of a traditional bureaucratic institution.
A task force is a special purpose ad hoc body of people with diverse disciplinary background for accomplishing a matter of urgent concern whether in public or private sphere of human endeavour. Rightly seen, a task force has certain advantages in emergency situations. First, it is composed of expert and competent hands from relevant disciplinary backgrounds to accomplish an urgent task.
Secondly, such an expert group enjoys greater degree of autonomy than the traditional bureaucracy. Thirdly, the group performs assigned functions with greater degree of speed, precision, flexibility and adaptability.
Fourthly, the task group is usually well resourced (financially, materially and humanly speaking) to enable it execute the desired assignment.
Lastly, the group has greater capacity to be more perceptive and innovative than the traditional bureaucracy.
Governments across the world have created one form of mechanism or the other to fight this ravaging COVID-19 pandemic emergency. Some use what is called Emergency Management Team, others Emergency Operations Task Force, while some others just call theirs Task Force or Presidential Task Force as in the case of Nigeria. Whatever name this emergency team is called, it is basically meant to quickly respond and mitigate this crisis situation.
Nigeria’s coordinating institutional response to COVID-19 emergency is through the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 (PTF on COVID-19). The PTF on COVID-19 was set up by President Muhammadu Buhari on March 9, 2020, ‘to coordinate and oversee Nigeria’s multi-sectoral inter-governmental efforts to contain the spread and mitigate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic’. The PTF is chaired by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha, and the body is made up of 12 members drawn from various ministerial and disciplinary backgrounds as well as from a development partner. The PTF has a scalable structure with various Working Groups assisting it at the operational level. The three-fold major objectives of PTF are: (a) Advising the President on the National Response to the pandemic; (b) Assessing the needs of State and Federal Governments, and liaising with the private sector and multilateral partners to mobilise needed resources; and (c) Accreditation of Isolation and Treatment Centres nationwide. The PTF holds daily briefings to update the nation on the national response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is necessary here to examine whether the use of this task force approach in managing the COVID-19 pandemic emergency has lived up to expectations.
Secondly, did the composition of its members meet the criterion specified earlier in terms of balanced mix of expertise and multi-disciplinary backgrounds?
Also, have the members deployed their expertise well enough to confront the spread of COVID-19? Finally, what are the challenges in our weak health system do the citizens expect the PTF to address in its operations?
These few and other questions will engage the rest of our attention in the second part of this article.
ONE YEAR REMEMBRANCE:
Ezinne Monica Ogbonne Eneh (Nee Emehel)
(March 3, 1930 – May 3, 2019)
Mama, Grandma: You will continue to remain evergreen in the minds of all your Children, Grand-Children and Great Grand-Children.
Courtesy of:
Prof. & Prof. (Mrs.) Isaac Nnamdi Obasi,
University of Abuja
Prof. Obasi, a public policy expert (& former columnist in the Daily Trust, Abuja, March 2003 to October 2006, & Daily Champion, Lagos, April 2005 to December 2008), is of the Department of Public Administration, University of Abuja. Email: nnamdizik@gmail.com
