N’Assembly 20-agency plan may hinder Oronsaye report implementation
Weeks after the President Bola Tinubu administration announced the implementation of the Stephen Oronsaye report, lawmakers in the Senate and House of Representatives have introduced no fewer than 20 bills for the establishment of new agencies of government, an analysis by Sunday PUNCH has revealed.
The bills for the new agencies, ranging from research to financial parastatals, are at different hearing levels in the upper and lower chambers of the National Assembly.
If passed, this would further add to the already existing number of agencies which the Orosanye report seeks to reduce.
Twelve years after it received the report, the Federal Government, in February, approved the implementation of some of its recommendations to reduce the cost of governance.
Consequently, 29 government agencies will be merged and no fewer than eight parastatals will be subsumed into eight other agencies.
Meanwhile, four agencies have been relocated to four various ministries, while one was listed for scrapping.
The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, revealed this to State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council meeting at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja, on Monday.
Submitted in 2012, the Oronsaye report on public sector reforms revealed that there were 541 statutory and non-statutory—Federal Government parastatals, commissions and agencies.
In 2011, then-President Goodluck Jonathan had set up the Presidential Committee on Restructuring and Rationalisation of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies, under the leadership of a former Head of the Civil Service, Stephen Oronsaye.
The 800-page report recommended that the statutory agencies be slashed from 263 to 161; 38 agencies be scrapped; 52 be merged, and 14 be reverted to departments in various ministries.
The report also recommends that the law establishing the National Salaries and Wages Commission be repealed, and its functions taken over by the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Responsibility Commission.
However, a white paper committee, headed by the then Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke, reviewed the report and rejected most of the recommendations of the committee when it submitted its report in 2014.
But, even the accepted recommendations were not implemented until the Jonathan administration left office in 2015.
In 2021, the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari inaugurated two committees to implement the report.
One of the committees, headed by a former Head of Service, Bukar Aji, was mandated to review the report and the government white paper.
The other committee, chaired by Amal Pepple, was mandated to review ministries, departments and agencies created between 2014 and 2021.
However, the Buhari administration failed to implement the report.
A PUNCH analysis in 2024 showed that the government could save over N241bn if the report was duly implemented.
The Presidency has since released a list of agencies to be scrapped and those to be merged.
The President’s Special Adviser on Policy Coordination, Hadiza Bala-Usman, announced the agencies to be merged to include the National Agency for Control of HIV/AIDS to be merged with the Centre for Disease Control in the Federal Ministry of Health.
The National Emergency Management Agency is to be merged with the National Commission for Refugee Migration and Internally Displaced Persons; the Directorate of Technical Cooperation in Africa is to be merged with the Directorate of Technical Aid and to function as a department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission will be merged with the Bureau for Public Enterprises; the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission to be integrated into the Nigerian Export Promotion Council, as the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure will now be one with the National Centre for Agriculture Mechanisation and Project Development Institute.
Also, the National Biotechnology Development Agency will be amalgamated with the National Centre for Genetic Resource and Biotechnology, the National Institute for Leather Science Technology with the National Institute for Chemical Technology and the Nomadic Education Commission with the National Commission for Mass Literacy, Adult Education and Non-formal Education.
The Federal Radio Corporation will be merged with the Voice of Nigeria; the National Commission for Museum and Monuments with the National Gallery of Arts; the National Theatre with the National Troupe of Nigeria and the National Metrological Development Centre with the National Metrological Training Institute.
In a similar vein, the Nigerian Army University, Biu, Borno State, will now function as a faculty within the Nigerian Defence Academy; while the Air Force Institute of Technology will also become a faculty in the NDA.
According to Bala-Usman, the Service Compact with Nigeria, popularly known as SERVICOM, has been subsumed to function as a department under the Bureau for Public Service Reform; the Border Communities Development Agency becomes a department at the National Boundary Commission, while the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission will be subsumed into the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Allocation Commission.
The Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution will become part of the Institute for International Affairs; the Public Complaints Commission will be under the National Human Rights Commission; the Nigerian Institute for Trypanosomiasis into the Institute for Veterinary Research; the National Medicine Development Agency under the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development and the National Intelligence Agency Pension Commission under the Nigerian Pension Commission.
The special adviser also announced that the Niger Delta Power Holding Company will be relocated to the Ministry of Power; the National Agricultural Land Development Agency to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security; the National Blood Service Commission will be converted into an agency and relocated to the Federal Ministry of Health; even as the Nigerian Diaspora Commission will become an agency at the Federal Ministry of Finance.
However, while the discourse on the implementation of the report is ongoing, the National Assembly and successive governments have been creating agencies and institutions, therefore, increasing the cost of governance in the process.
NASS’ defence
The Deputy spokesman of the House of Representatives, Philip Agbese, justified the push by the National Assembly for the creation of 20 new federal agencies.
Speaking with Sunday PUNCH, Agbese said, “The Oronsaye Report adopted by Mr President has been debated by the parliament, and the parliament set up a committee headed by the House leader, Julius Ihonvbere, to review and make appropriate recommendations as the position of parliament that will also be sent to Mr President.
“If the Nigerian people in their wisdom, as the custodianw of power, and as the employers of Mr President and members of the National Assembly and every Nigerian who draws his salaries from taxpayers’ resources deem it necessary that we should have 20 new agencies, to serve the purpose of good governance in line with the commitment of Mr Speaker, Tajudeen Abbas, and our commitment as a parliament to continue to serve the masses, I think it is a welcome idea.
“We do not represent ourselves in the parliament. We are here for the Nigerian people, and every second, this 10th Assembly is answerable to the dictates of the Nigerian people. They remain our masters. Whatever they tell us, so shall we do.”
NASS bereft of ideas – PDP
Reacting, the Peoples Democratic Party stated that the National Assembly lacked the initiative to thoroughly scrutinise issues presented by the Presidency, adding that they endorse everything proposed by the executive.
The National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Ibrahim Abdullahi, said the National Assembly was a ‘rubber stamp’, stating that they lacked innovative ideas.
Abdullahi said, “If there’s any president that has enjoyed the full support of the National Assembly, it is President Bola Tinubu. This National Assembly is essentially a rubber stamp, as widely discussed by everyone. The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, has been in alignment with the executive.
“Similarly, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, has not shown any deviation. If there is any legislative body that seems to be completely aligned or absorbed by the presidency, it is this current National Assembly. There is no indication that they assert their ideas or perspectives; they simply adopt everything from the President without question.”
LP kicks
Also commenting on the matter, the National Secretary of the Labour Party, Umar Ibrahim, condemned the move by the National Assembly to create 20 more agencies against the adoption of the Oronsaye report by Tinubu, advising the President to ‘sit tight and ensure that the lawmakers become more active’.
He said, “The executive arm of the government said they want to reduce the number of MDAs, and the legislature is saying they want to increase it. That is what is happening even with the budget. That’s why you hear all the calls about budget burdens and so on. The executive will come up with their budget, and the legislative will increase it. There is no synchronisation and harmonious relationship.
“That’s the level of confusion that is going on between the executive and the legislative of our government, and that is why all the policy thrusts of the government are not working. It is because there is no synergy and synchronisation of views and ideas between both arms of the government.”
Meanwhile, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Victor Okpara, stated that the problem with the country was not just about reports, but also about White Papers.
He said, “There must be the political will and sincerity to ensure that justice works for everybody. If you like, have one million reports; they will not work in this country once there is no sincerity of purpose or political will to implement those reports.
“You can implement that report and yet be frustrated. It can even be implemented negatively. The main thing is that change must begin with us.”
NASS unorganised – CSOs
Reacting, the Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre and Chairman, Board of Amnesty International, Nigeria, Auwal Musa (Rafsanjani), berated the National Assembly, saying most of their bills did not reflect the yearnings of Nigerians.
He said, “While our constitution allows for private member bills, over the years, we have had many over-ambitious bills that do not meet the yearnings and aspirations of Nigerians, but rather, some members want to be seen as working legislators by sponsoring bills that do not have any human or economic value; or even national interest. Some of them just want it to be on the record that they sponsored so and so bills.
“The essence of making laws is for good governance, peace, stability, and the general good of the nation. How does creating more agencies in an already-bloated system help that?”
Also, the Chairman of the Rivers Civil Society Coalition, Georgewill Enefaa, was of the view that for the National Assembly to create more agencies, it showed that the government was not coordinated.
“The government needs to ask itself if it is serious about the business of governance. Otherwise, there won’t be another report that suggests the scrapping and merging of ministries, while some people in the same government want to create more.
“The National Assembly should have liaised with the Federal Government to see how they can properly fine-tune and manage the number of ministries, so as not to waste government resources over nothingness,” he said.
Also speaking, the Executive Director of the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, Debo Adeniran, contended that if existing agencies already fulfilled the roles intended for the proposed new agencies, then creating additional ones would be redundant and wasteful.
On his part, a researcher and public affairs analyst, Ayodamola Oluwatoyin, told Sunday PUNCH that for the implementation of the Oransanye report to be successful, there needed to be synergy between all stakeholders.
“The executive cannot be looking forward to cutting costs, while the legislature is focused on the establishment of more agencies. We won’t have progress that way,” he said.
