The President, Bola Tinubu, on Monday, resolved to implement the Stephen Oronsaye report that called for a leaner government by merging some agencies and scrapping some others.
The president’s decision was announced by a presidential spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, via his X handle.
Here are things to know about the report:
Here are some things to know about the Oronsanye report and its implementation by President Tinubu:
– The Oronsanye report was submitted in 2012 by a presidential committee on restructuring and rationalization of federal government parastatals, commissions and agencies, led by former Head of Civil Service, Stephen Oronsaye.
– The report recommended a reduction of statutory agencies from 263 to 161, by abolishing 38, merging 52, and reverting 14 to departments in ministries. The aim was to cut the cost of governance and enhance efficiency.
– The report also suggested some controversial changes, such as scrapping the Federal Character Commission, merging the top three anti-corruption agencies, and rejecting recommendations related to the National Youth Service Scheme.
– The report was largely rejected by the previous administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, who only implemented about 10% of the proposals.
– President Tinubu ordered the full implementation of the Oronsaye report on Monday, February 26, 2024, after 77 days of his swearing-in. He announced the merging, subsuming, scraping and relocation of several agencies of government.
– President Tinubu constituted a committee to implement the mergers, scrapping and relocations within 12 weeks, headed by his Special Adviser on Policy Coordination, Mrs Hadiza Bala-Usman.
– The implementation of the Oronsaye report is expected to save the government over N241bn annually, according to an earlier analysis by SUNDAY PUNCH. However, it may also face some challenges from career civil servants, the National Assembly, and politicians who may resist the reforms.
– If implemented, no fewer than 102 heads of agencies and parastatals will lose their jobs.
– The committee’s 800-page report noted that the government’s parastatals and agencies’ functions are overlapping.
– The committee also recommended the management audit of 89 agencies capturing biometric features of staff as well as the discontinuation of government funding of professional bodies/councils.
– The breakdown showed that about N124.8 billion would be reduced from agencies proposed for abolition; about N100.6 billion from agencies proposed for mergers; about N6.6 billion from professional bodies; N489.9 billion from universities; N50.9 billion from polytechnics; N32.3 billion from colleges of education and N616 million from boards of federal medical centres.
– Some agencies cited doing overlapping functions are the Nigerian Communication Satellite Limited, the National Broadcasting Commission and the Nigeria Communications Commission in the area of frequency allocation.
– Also, the Universal Basic Education Commission, Nomadic Education Commission, and National Mass Literacy Commission are performing overlapping functions and should be brought under one body.
– The committee again believes NTA, FRCN, and VON should be under one management.
– In November 2021, the Federal Government inaugurated two committees; one of the committees was to review the Orosanye report and its white paper chaired by a retired Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Goni Aji.
– The second committee was constituted to review agencies created from 2014 till date, chaired by another retired Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Amal Pepple.
– Upon submission of their reports, the Federal Government in July 2022 set up another committee chaired by a former Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Ebele Okeke, to produce a white paper on the reports.
– Speaking during the presentation of the white paper to the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, in Abuja, Okeke stressed that it is important to discuss with the leadership of the National Assembly to achieve the desired result, adding that most of the agencies created were products of bills from the National Assembly.
