http://www.punchng.com/editorial/dont-dump-oronsaye-report/


DUMPING the Stephen Oronsaye committee report, as is currently being contemplated by the Federal Government, will be a missed opportunity to, once and for all, reduce the size of government to a manageable level while also streamlining the operations of its various organs for efficient service delivery. Over 70 per cent of government resources are currently channelled into running a government that is unduly large and cumbersome to manage, leaving the remaining, less than 30 per cent, for issues such as debt servicing and execution of capital projects.

This has inevitably led to stunted development and a very high level of poverty. Nigeria’s unemployment rate stands at 23.9 per cent and youth unemployment is 37.7 per cent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Despite being the sixth largest exporter of crude oil in the world, over 70 per cent of Nigeria’s estimated 167 million population are poor, living beneath the United Nations poverty threshold of $2 per day. Nigeria’s human development index performance is one of the poorest in the world, while 10.5 million children of school age are not accommodated in the formal education system. This is the highest in the world, according to UNICEF.

Yet, the country continues to promote a wasteful and corrupt system that can never deliver development. With a cabinet of more than 40 ministers and unspecified number of Special Advisers/Assistants, many of them of cabinet rank, the Nigerian government is undoubtedly one of the largest and most expensive in the world. Nigeria also runs a bicameral legislature of 469 members at the national level, who are the highest remunerated lawmakers globally.

Besides, there are also in existence about 541 ministries, agencies and departments, all funded by the taxpayer. This has rightly prompted calls from well-meaning individuals for a drastic reduction in the size of government if Nigeria is to return to the path of meaningful development and progress. One of such calls came from the defunct Presidential Advisory Committee, led by a former Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Theophilus Damjuma (retd). The committee boasted membership that included erudite lawyer, Ben Nwabueze, and former Commonwealth Secretary-General, Emeka Anyaoku.

It was perhaps in response to such calls that President Goodluck Jonathan came up with the idea of setting up the Presidential Committee on the Rationalisation and Restructuring of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies. Functioning under the leadership of a retired civil servant and former Head of Service of the Federation, Oronsaye, the committee recommended the scrapping and merging of 220 out the existing 541 government agencies.

Not only did the Federal Executive Council meet to deliberate on the report, a White Paper was reportedly produced before what now looks like a sudden volte-face by the government. Citing some legal issues and the fact that very little gain was likely to come from the exercise, the Federal Government is now poised to drop the report. Already, provisions have been reportedly made for all the MDAs in the Medium Team Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy sent to the National Assembly for approval.

This is a clear demonstration of the government’s lack of political will to implement policies that can impact positively on the economy and the polity. The government is just giving excuses for its unwillingness to implement the report. In the United Kingdom, a parliamentary committee, the Public Administration Select Committee, in 2010, recommended a reduction in the number of ministers by a third in what was seen as capable of radically reducing the country’s payroll. If a cut in government size can save costs in Britain, why is it that it cannot do the same in Nigeria?

It is, of course, obvious to everybody that every agency of government derives its existence from one legislative backing or the other. So it was certain that in embarking on the job of rationalisation or scrapping or even merging of such agencies, there would be the need to tinker with the laws creating them. And what does it take to change such laws? Has the President sent bills for amending the laws to the National Assembly and the legislators refuse to work on them?

It is also difficult to believe that scrapping a whopping 220 agencies of government and doing away with excess bureaucracy will not save billions of naira for use in other areas of need. According to the Adamu Fika-led committee that reviewed the Oronsaye report, the Federal Government will spend N1.031 trillion on civil servants out of N4.9 trillion budgeted in 2013. It is also difficult to conceive that the underlying reason for the action is not political. If such agencies are scrapped, what will happen to all the political appointees that are serving there as board members? Where will the contracts be coming from?

But it should be stated that lean government is the way to go in any part of the world. It is not only cost saving, it is also more efficient and result-oriented. This is why it is embraced even by the advanced democracies of the world. The government needs all the sagacity it can muster in the management of resources at its disposal to be able to discharge the enormous responsibilities to Nigerians. One of the most reasonable ways of doing this is to effect rational cuts in the cost of governance.

This report is yet to be implemented yet Jonathan is starting a National Conference which may turn out to be a waste of time and money.

What has happened to the Oronsaye Report?