President Bola Tinubu has on Monday instructed that the Oronsaye report be implemented in its entirety.
The 2012 Oronsaye report on reforms within the public sector disclosed the existence of 541 federal government entities, encompassing both statutory and non-statutory parastatals, commissions, and agencies.
Mohammed Idris, the Minister of Information, announced to reporters following Monday’s Federal Executive Council (FEC) session that Tinubu has given the green light for certain reforms derived from the Oronsaye report.
Idris stated that various agencies would be dissolved, merged, or reorganized to reduce the costs of governance.
“In a very bold move today, this administration, under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, consistent 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 better,” the president reportedly said.
The Oronsaye report was submitted in 2012 to the Jonathan administration. In 2014, the Jonathan government released a white paper on the report. The Buhari administration after re-examining the white paper also released a second white paper in August 2022, but did not implement the report.
However, the Tinubu administration has decided to confront the monster of high governance cost by implementing elements of the report.
An eight-man committee has a 12-week deadline to ensure that the necessary legislative amendments and administrative restructuring needed to implement the reforms are effected in an efficient manner.
The report submitted by the Oronsanye committee under the Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in 2012 has endured successive administrations without implementation.
By Implication, some federal agencies would either be scrapped, merged or relocated.
A committee to be headed by the Secretary to the Government of the federation is to work out the modalities for implementation.
