For longer than Nigerians can remember, successive governments have been making promises of cutting Nigeria’s huge cost of governance in the face of dwindling resources beginning with reversing the epidemic of multiplication of governmental agencies. In 2011, former President Goodluck Jonathan set up the Presidential Committee on Restructuring and Rationalisation of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies, under the chairmanship of Steve Oronsaye. The Committee submitted an 800-page report on April 16, 2012, which recommended the abolition and merger of 102 government agencies and parastatals, while some were listed to be self-funding.
The report revealed a high level of competition among several overlapping agencies, which had not only created ill-feelings among government agencies but also brought about unnecessary wastage in government expenditure. It recommended, among other things, the discontinuation of government funding of professional bodies and councils. The measures were aimed at freeing funds for the much-needed capital projects across the country.
Goodluck Jonathan did not implement the report although he had set up a committee that prepared a whitepaper in March 2014. Muhammadu Buhari stepped into power with a firm promise that he would implement it. He did not even try to do it.
This issue is one of the clear illustrations of the crumbling capacity of the State to govern. Government is simply incapable of doing what it sets out to do. The report was so comprehensive and clear that the Jonathan administration did not need two years to produce a whitepaper which simply outlines what aspects of the report are accepted for implementation and how. The whitepaper was prepared by the Muhammed Adoke Committee. Then the Buhari administration established the Bukar Aji Committee to review the Mohammed Adoke White Paper. The government then set up the Amal Pepple Committee to review new Parastatals, Agencies and Commissions (PAC) created between 2012 to October 2021. After that, the Ebele Okeke Committee was set up to draft a White Paper on the Amal Pepple Committee Report on new Parastatals, Agencies and Commissions created between 2012 and 2021.
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By refusing to act on the original report for over a decade, the situation was allowed to get out of hand and the bureaucratic machine continued on its self-serving tactic of creating more opportunities for committees and their budgets while the original problem is allowed to fester.
Since the Oronsaye Committee, about 300 additional agencies, commissions, tertiary institutions and parastatals have been created through new legislative bills in the National Assembly which got excited by the benefits of agency creation either as a constituency project for their self-aggrandisement or as an avenue for additional income by private associations that are ready to bribe legislators to get their private outfits acquire the chapeau of a government agency and be placed on the national budget.
According to the Guardian (28 August 2022), between 2015 and 2019, 213 out of the total number of 311 bills introduced to the 8th Senate were bills that sought the creation of more federal agencies and commissions and 80 of them received presidential assent. Of the 742 legislative bills introduced to the two chambers of the National Assembly between June 2019 and June 2021, over 262 were establishment bills, that is, bills seeking the establishment of one agency or the other. The legislative bills, many of which have been passed and assented to by the president, include the National Commission for the Coordination and Control of the Proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons (Establishment), 2022; the Nigerian Peace Corps Bill; North Central Development Commission (Est., etc) Bill 2019; Electoral Offences Commission (Est., etc) Bill, 2019; North West Development Commission (Est., etc) Bill, 2019; National Sports Commission (Est., etc) Bill, 2019; and Social Intervention Programmes Agency (Est., etc) Bill, 2019.
Also included are the National Food Reserve Agency (Est., etc) Bill, 2019; Police Academy (Est., etc) Bill, 2019; and South West Development Commission (Est., etc) Bill, 2019. Others are the South East Development Commission (Est., etc) Bill, 2019; Fiscal Responsibility Commission (Est., etc) Bill, 2019; National Road Fund (Est., etc) Bill, 2019; National Assembly Budget and Research Office (Est., etc) Bill, 2019; National Commission for the Eradication Of Child Destitution (Est., etc) Bill, 2019; Dormant Account Funds Management (Est., etc) Bill, 2019; and Constituency Development Fund (Est., etc) Bill, 2019.
The bills were therefore emanating both from government and outside government.
It is in this context that the announcement this week by the Tinubu administration that in line with the Oronsaye Report, the federal government has notified professional bodies and councils that it would cease to fund them beginning from the 2024 budget in line with the decisions of the Presidential Committee on Salaries (PCS). The message was clear.
I like the idea of simply implementing what could be implemented directly rather than setting up more whitepaper committees:
“I wish to inform you that the presidential committee on salaries (PCS) at its 13th meeting approved the discontinuation of budgetary allocation to professional bodies/councils effective 1st January, 2024. You will be required, effective 1st January 2024, to be fully responsible for your personnel, overhead and capital expenditures.” This a good beginning.
The bodies that would be affected include Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), Computer Registration Council, Librarians Registration Council, National Education Research and Development Council, Mass Literacy Council, National Examination Council (NECO) and the West African Examination Council (WAEC) under the Ministry of Education. Under the Ministry of Health, those to be affected include the Nursing and Midwifery Council, Pharmacists Council of Nigeria, Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, and the Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria will be affected.
Others include Environmental Health Council of Nigeria, Nigeria Press Council, Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria, Council of Nigerian Mining Engineers and Geosciences; Veterinary Council of Nigeria, Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria, Survey Council of Nigeria, Legal Aid Council, Council of Legal Education, National Automotive Design and Development Council; Nigeria Export Promotion Council, Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, Nigeria Investment Promotion Council; and the Nigerian Council of Food Science and Technology among others.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. There has been for example an inflation in the creation of tertiary institutions. The Premium Times editorial of October 17, 2022 pointed out that at the time, there were 63 bills before the National Assembly for the establishment of more universities, colleges of education and polytechnics. Out of these bills, 26 are for federal universities and 33 for colleges of education, agriculture, health and forestry institutions.
Meanwhile, the existing institutions were not filling up existing admission spaces. In 2020, for instance, JAMB said 400,000 university admission slots were not utilised. Only 551,553 candidates were offered admission that year. For colleges of education, only 47,920 students were admitted out of 235,240 admission slots available.
The real issue is that core ministries are not doing their work of review of trends and planning for future needs and there is a mad rush to create new institutions and place them on government budget. Meanwhile, government has lost the capacity to pay for these new agencies and dwindling revenues are being spread so thinly that most agencies are actually not able to deliver on their mandates because government simply does not have the funds to enable them to do their work.
For too long, Nigeria has allowed irresponsibility and personal interests to shape the public space. This drift must be stopped.
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