- 29 agencies to be merged
- Eight parastatals to be listed into eight other agencies
- RMFAC to take over National Salaries and Wages Commission
- FG assures no job loss
The Federal Government has approved the full implementation of the Stephen Oronsaye Panel report to merge some parastatals, agencies, and some commissions, while others will be subsumed, scrapped or relocated.
The decision was made at the Federal Executive Council meeting chaired by President Bola Tinubu on Monday.
Consequently, 29 government agencies will be merged even as eight parastatals will be subsumed into eight other agencies.
More so, four agencies have been relocated to four various ministries and while one was earmarked 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, Monday.
The minister, who explained that the move would not lead to job losses and redundancies in the affected agencies, said it was meant to reduce the cost of governance and free up monies for reinvestment into the developmental projects.
“In a very bold move today, this administration, under the leadership of President Bola Tinubu…has taken a decision to implement the so-called Oronsaye report. Now, what that means is that a number of agencies, commissions and some departments have been scrapped.
“Some have been merged, while others have been subsumed. Others, of course, have also been moved from some ministries to others where the government feels they will operate better.
“The Pension Transition Arrangement Directorate has been scrapped. The National Senior Secondary School Education Commission is also being looked at with the aim to modify some of its processes and a final decision on that will be taken,” he explained.
Idris said the goal of Monday’s move is to “fine-tune and to restructure government operations as a whole…and to reduce the cost of governance because some of these agencies are performing very similar functions, so government thought it wise that there is the need, since this committee had already been set up, white paper already been produced, to take a bold decision to visit that.”
However, he allayed fears of massive job losses, saying employees will “find accommodation” within the new structure.
“It is important to note that the fact that the Oronsanye report has been approved and adopted by the council today does not mean that people will lose their jobs.
“All those who are employed, whether they have been moved, subsumed or scrapped will find accommodation within relevant government agencies. Nobody is going to lose his job as a result of that,” he added.
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 become a faculty of the Nigerian Defence Academy.
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 was subsumed into the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Allocation Commission.
The Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution was subsumed under the Institute for International Affairs; the Public Complaints Commission 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.
She announced that the Niger Delta Power Holding Company has been 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 has been converted into an agency and relocated to the Federal Ministry of Health even as the Nigerian Diaspora Commission becomes an agency at the Federal Ministry of Finance.
The Presidential aide revealed that Tinubu constituted a committee to midwife the necessary restructuring and legislative amendments needed to ensure full actualisation of the approvals granted.
She revealed, “He tasked this committee with an immediate term of reference to proceed and ensure all of these are done within a period of 12 weeks. The committee membership comprises the Secretary to the Government of Federation, who will chair the committee; the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, member; the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, member; the Honourable Minister of Budget and National Planning, member; the Director-General, Bureau of Public Service Reform, member; the Special Adviser to the President on Policy and Coordination is a member; the two Senior Special Assistants to the President on National Assembly are members; and the Cabinet Affairs Office will serve as secretariat.”
The committee, she said, would consider the administrative restructuring and also the legislative amendments required to ensure the full implementation of the recommendations.
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.
On 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.
