Inculcating best practices in project management, the panacea to much desired change in Nigeria.

Inculcating best practices in project management,  the panacea to much desired change in Nigeria.

A report of a course on "The Best Practices of Project Management" by the Malaysian Technical Cooperation Programme (MTCP)  held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia between 11th - 29th May, 2015.

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By Muhammad Jiya    June 1, 2015.

It was not a mere coincidence but a share providence that the swearing in of President Muhammadu Buhari with the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and that of 36 State Governors with their deputies coincided with completion of a course on "The Best Practices of Project Management" organized by the Malaysian Technical Cooperation Programme (MTCP) organized by Multimedia College (MMC) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia between 11th, 2015 to 29th May, 2015 for participants drawn from Seven (7) developing countries of the World. The MTCP is a programme that forms part of the commitment of the Malaysian Government towards the promotion of technical cooperation among developing countries, strengthening of regional and sub regional cooperation, as well as nurturing collective self reliance among developing countries. A lot of Nigerian have benefited from the programme.

As the only participant from Nigeria and indeed from African continent to this very important MTCP MMC course on "The Best Practices of Project Management", I found it as an obligation and a necessity to share the knowledge with my fellow Nigerian most especially the New Government at the Federal and State Levels who have just taken oaths of offices. Keeping such a knowledge to oneself will be unpatriotic and a disservice to the Nation. I strongly believe that inculcating "Best Practices in Project Management" is the panacea to the "Change" Nigerian are desperate to see in this new Government.

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While we all agreed as Nigerians that the alarming rate of project failures in Nigeria are largely due to corruption, we cannot also dispute the fact that lack of good project management skills and ethics that conform with the World best practices also contributes a great deal to project failures in Nigeria. Now that the Government wants to tackle corruption, the hydra-headed monster militating against the development of the Country, what the Government needs to do is do establish a holistic culture of imbibing the best practices of Project Management in executing its projects and programmes. In many cases, Government Officials and Management of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) who are the Project Sponsors are well intentioned by lack of adherence to basic principles of Project Management by those entrusted in delivering the projects usually lead to poor execution or sometimes outright failure of the Projects they embark on. Project Management is a skill needed not only by the project manager but also by all the Project Stakeholders in order to ensure successful implementation of projects. Project management is the planning, scheduling and controlling the project activities to meet project objectives. Therefore, the Executive Arms of Government at different levels should ensure that before embarking of the laudable projects they have promises the electorates during the electioneering campaigns, they have establish Project Management procedures and policies using the world best practices to reduce to rate of failed projects which has been the major source of waste of scarce resources of the Country.

Similarly, the knowledge of "Best Practices of Project Management" is also very important to the Legislative arms of governments who have the statutory responsibility of  Legislative oversight over the MDAs. They have the power to review, monitor and supervise agencies, programmes, activities and policy implementation of the executive arm of government. This can only be effectively done if they are equipped with knowledge and skills that will enable them to monitor projects from the initiations stages to the closure. Getting such knowledge will not help them discharge their duties effectively but safe the nation from failed projects.

As participants to the Course, count ourselves as extremely lucky people to be trained by Staff of Centralised Organisational Programme Management (COPM) Department ( of Telekom Malaysia (TM), a leading integrated telecommunications company not only in Malaysia but in the World at large. An organisation that have several of Awards of Excellent Service to its Kitty.  We are lucky because it not easy to get trainers combine four attributes in one,  a trainer who has the knowledge, who knows how to teach it, has the zeal to impart it and has practical experience of working with it for several years. Our Trainers were Certified and successful Project Managers of over 15 years who are already in the Management Level (some of them General Managers, Deputy General Managers) who were all trained by lecturers from the prestigious George Washington University, Washington, D.C. They took us through various modules of the Project Management  which includes; General Overview of Managing Projects, Scheduling and Cost Control, Contract Management: Principles & Practices, Qualities of a good Project Manager, Risk Management in Projects, Different Project Management Applications (Such as Oracle Primavera Enterprise Project Portfolio Management), Human Resources Management in Projects, Project Quality Assurance and Project Leadership, Management & Communications.

Having a talented project manager is the first step to actual project success, then putting the right team in place,  followed by careful planning (Project Charter, Project Structure, Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), Timeline and Cost, Project Requirement Document (PRD), Risk Register (Potential Risks and Mitigation actions)), paying attention to detail and effective communication to make a project succeed, vigilant management and a strong project closing with proper documentation of lessons learned, an organisation/company can consistently reach project success.

The most interesting part of the course is that, the trainers did not only teach us the modules but they practically explained to us how they have applied them in their successful projects which includes; Malaysian High Speed Broadband (HSBB) Network which cost  about MYR 11.3 billion (USD 3.5 billion) with the government funding MYR 2.4 billion (USD 740 million) in phase I, the Phase II of the Project is ongoing and other projects too numerous to mention in this write-up. In TM alone they have a pool of over 150 trained and certified project managers ready to be assigned to any project or components of projects. Interestingly, from our discussions with the trainers, although they have tight schedules as top management staff they are willing to come to our respective countries to come and deliver lectures and share their experience of best practices in Project Management with Government Officials (Executive and Legislative), MDAs and even Private Organisation willing to achieve successful implementation of Project to effective Project Management. It is in this regard that I will like to suggest to aforementioned bodies to take advantage of this type of opportunity to get things right by engaging the services of seasoned and experienced professionals to guide their potential project managers.

Furthermore, it was during the training session and our interactions with the trainers that I realized that Ab initio most projects in Nigeria are designed to fail from the initiation stage because they are poorly planned. Comprehensive planning sets up a project for success from the start. All stakeholders should be on board during the planning process and always know in which direction the project is going to go.  Good planning not only keeps the project team focused and on track, but also keeps stakeholders aware of project progress. TM in its effort to ensure zero tolerance to all forms of corruption has an Anti-Corruption guide which sets out the policy statements and guidelines in relation to improper solicitation, bribery and other corrupt activities and issues that may arise in the course of conducting business and Code of Business Ethics – which contains an express prohibition on all forms of bribery and corrupt activities in projects implementation. These guides are strictly adhere too because we were informed about punitive measures that were taken against violators of the guides.

On the other hand, our visit to Menara TM (the Headquarters of Telecom Malaysia) a 60-Storey building that strikes the perfect balance between inspirational architecture and state of the art facilities and subsequent visits to Multimedia University (MMU) and  Multimedia College (MMC) both subsidiary of TM made me sad and  depressed for my beloved Country Nigeria. As a former staff of Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) I became envious because both TM and NITEL share the same history. Both of them were Government Owned Telecommunication Companies that enjoyed a monopoly of providing fixed lines telephone services over a long period of time. Both of them were privatized at certain period to make them more effective and to be able to compete effectively in the telecommunication revolution occasioned by GSM  . The only sad story while one had its privatization successful and is now Telecom Giant even acquiring other private owned Mobile Telecom Operators, the other was unlucky its privatisation has been marred by controversies leaving the  former Telecom giant to be trailing behind other Telecom Operators in Nigeria. This again is a typical case that necessitate best practices in Project Management. The same process that made TM successful brought NITEL to its present predicament. At MMU and MMC, while they were telling us good stories of the graduates they have produced in Telecom Engineering and other related fields I was just thinking of our NITEL Training Schools in Lagos and Kano, the institution that will have by now be awarding Degrees and Diplomas in Engineering, Information Technology, etc.

The Participants of the MTCP MMC 2015 Course on "The Best Practices of Project Management" includes; Mrs. Sirigunlaya Ruangamnart and Kiattisak Muenphaen from Thailand, Renato C. Bequillo and Ferdinand D. Sevilla from Philippine, Shafqat Abbas from Pakistan, Mrs. Chocho Win  from Myanmar, Mrs. Chansamai Phommachan and Phathipsavanh Thammavongsa from Laos Peoples Democratic Republic (PDR), Gafurjan Ibragimov from Uzbekistan and Muhammad Jiya from Federal Republic of Nigeria who was elected as the Great President of Seven (7) Great Nations during the three (3) weeks course.

I will like express my appreciation Malaysian Government through its Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA)  for organizing the Programme, to the Malaysian Embassy in Nigeria for issuing me a Social Visa at eleventh hour,  to our hosts the Management and staff of the Multimedia College (MMC)  for their kindness during the course, to the Management and Staff of Telekom Malaysia most especially our trainers who are staff of COPM department for given us refined knowledge they have gathered over a long period of time through demonstration of practical experience in application of the knowledge and for responding appropriately to our questions and enquiries no matter the nature even if outside the scope of the course, to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the endorsement and processing of my application form at the Malaysian Embassy and to the management of Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT) for granting me permission to attend the course and offering all the necessary support.

In conclusion,  I will like the Executive and Legislative Arms of Governments (Federal, State and Local Governments), the MDAs as well as private organisations to inculcating Best Practices in Project Management which is the panacea to much desired change in Nigeria. This can only be done by giving the Project Managers/Supervisors in their organisation the requisite Project Management training and making sure that those who have sound knowledge of Project Management are given the task of Project Management to avoid wastage of scarce resources of the Government or the organizations which usually result from failure of projects. The new administration should insist that there should be strictly adherence to the laid down principles of project management by all MDAs. The New Administrations at Federal and State Levels should establish independent Projects Monitoring Units independent of the Project Management Team of the MDAs to be headed by Project Management experts that will be responsible for Project Monitoring using the modern project management tools reporting directly to the executives. This will provide checks and balances, enabling the executives to have accurate Project Status Reports at any point in time because experience have shown than Project Managers will always try to give positive reports of the projects they are handling irrespective of issues, delays and risks in the projects. We pray to the Almighty Lord to give President Muhammad Buhari more wisdom to change Nigeria than He gave Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad who was agent of change in Malaysia. Malaysia got its independence just three(3) years before Nigeria from the same colonial master, the Great Britain with similar resources but the difference in development between the two (2) countries is more than several years.

Muhammad Jiya is a Manager with Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NGICOMSAT), Obasanjo Space Centre, Airport Road, Abuja, Nigeria and can be reached on [email protected] or [email protected] or through his mobile +2348033524944, +2348072525705

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