President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has ordered the immediate implementation of the Presidential Committee on the Rationalisation and Restructuring of Federal Government Parastatals and Commissions headed by former Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mr Stephen Osagiede Oronsaye.
Minister of Information and National Orientation Mr Mohammed Idris, who disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in Abuja, said many agencies would be eliminated, combined or restructured in line with the recommendations of the committee.
“In a very bold move today, this administration, under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, consistent again with his courage to take very far-reaching decisions in the interest of Nigeria, has taken a decision to implement the so-called Oronsaye Report.
“Now, what that means that a number of agencies, commissions and some departments have actually been scrapped. Some have been modified, marked while others have been subsumed. Others, of course, have also been moved from some ministries to others where government feels they will operate a better,” he said.
Also, the Special Adviser to the President on Policy Coordination, Hadiza Bala Usman, said the decision is in line with the need to reduce cost of governance and streamline efficiency across the governance value chain.
To ensure the implementation of the proposed changes, FEC set up a committee with the mandate to implement the mergers, scrapings, and relocations within 12 weeks.
FEC also received a report from the inter-ministerial panel set up to review the affairs of the National Social Investment Programme.
The Council further approved the immediate restart of the direct payments to 12 million households comprising 60 million Nigerians with key provisos.
In 2011, then President Goodluck Jonathan set up the Presidential Committee on Restructuring and Rationalisation of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies with Oronsaye as chairman.
In April 16, 2012, the committee submitted an 800-page report identifying, amongst several other things, overlapping agencies, causing wastage in expenditure.
The report said there were 541 parastatals, commissions and agencies and recommended that 263 of the agencies should be reduced to 161, 38 agencies abolished and 52 merged.
There were some motion without movement on the report during ex-President Muhammadu Buhari eight years in office but the new government said implementing the report aligned with its cost-cutting measures.
