Shettima to Chair Hadiza Bala Usman’s 50th Birthday Colloquium

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

Vice President Kashim Shettima will on Tuesday chair the first Hadiza Bala Usman governance colloquium holding in commemoration of the 50th birthday anniversary of the Special Adviser to the President on Policy and Coordination and Head, Central Results Delivery Coordination Unit (CRDCU), Hadiza Bala Usman.

The event which holds at 10am at the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, will be addressed by renowned public policy expert, Dr. Joe Abah, who will speak on the theme: “Leadership, Delivery, and the Courage to Serve,” a statement in Abuja said yesterday.

Abah’s keynote address, according to the organisers of the event, will set the tone for a robust interrogation of the discipline and accountability required to sustain public sector performance through a panel discussion with policy and governance experts.

According to the release, the distinguished panel of experts will give deeper insights into the colloquium’s theme, drawing from their extensive experience in policy formulation and institutional reforms.

The panelists include: Taiwo Oyedele, Chairman, Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee; Muhammad Sani Abdullahi, Deputy Governor, Economic Policy, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Waziri Adio, Founder and Executive Director, Agora Policy and Former Executive Secretary of the National Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI).

Others are: Rinsola Abiola, Director-General, Citizenship and Leadership Training Centre and Habiba Lawal, a retired Permanent Secretary and former Special Adviser to the President on Policy Coordination.

The planning committee of the colloquium said the event will also serve as a strategic platform for senior government officials, policy experts, and private sector leaders to deliberate on the dynamics of results-based governance, sustainable institutional reform and the courage required to drive transformative change in Nigeria’s public service.

President Bola Tinubu appointed Hadiza Bala Usman as his  Special Adviser on Policy and Coordination in June 2023. She also serves as the Head of the Central Results Delivery Coordination Unit. In this capacity, she works at the forefront of coordinating government policies and driving the President’s delivery agenda across ministries and sectors.

Earlier, she was appointed as Chief of Staff to the Governor of Kaduna State by former Governor Nasir el -Rufai in 2015, after which President Muhammadu Buhari selected her as the first female Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), serving from July 2016 to February 2022.

She co-founded the global movement #BringBackOurGirls, which raised international awareness and called for the rescue of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls in 2014.