Former
President Goodluck Jonathan had, in 2012, set up a Presidential Committee on
the rationalisation and restructuring of the Federal Government Parastatals,
Commissions and Agencies.
The
committee, headed by former Head of the Civil Service of the Federation,
Stephen Oronsaye, recommended the scrapping and merging of 220 out of the
then-existing 541 government agencies.
Moving a
motion of urgent public importance on the floor of the House on Thursday, the
trio of Kama Nkemkanma, Olumide Osoba and Gaza Gbefi noted that the Oronsonye
Report recommended the reduction of statutory agencies from 263 to 161, the
abolition of 38 agencies, and the reversion of 14 to departments in ministries
and the management audit of 89 agencies capturing biometric features of staff,
as well as the discontinuation of government funding of professional
bodies/councils.
The
lawmakers further added that if implemented, the government would be saving
over N862 billion between 2012 and 2015 with a breakdown which showed that about
N124.8bn would be reduced from agencies proposed for abolition; about N100.6bn
from agencies proposed for mergers; about N6.6bn from professional bodies;
N489.9bn from universities; N50.9bn from polytechnics; N32.3bn from colleges of
education and N616 million from boards of Federal Medical Centres.”
They argued
however that the White Paper committee set up by Jonathan’s administration
rejected most of the recommendations, while those accepted were not
implemented.
The House
notes that in November 2021, President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration
inaugurated two committees.
One of the
committees chaired by a retired Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Goni
Aji, was to review the Orosanye report and the second committee, chaired by a
retired Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Ama Pepple, was also constituted
to review agencies created between 2014 and 2021.
The House
also notes that upon submission of their reports, the Muhammadu Buhari-led
Federal Government in July 2022 set up another committee chaired by Ebele
Okeke, a former Head of the Civil Service of the Federation to produce a white
paper on the reports.
The said
lawmaker also noted that implementing the Oronsaye Report 12 years after it was
first made, “which ordinarily may be described as outdated, especially because
of how dynamic the society, economy, polity, technology and all facets of our
national life has been,” may not be in the best interest of the nation.