Twelve years after the submission of the 800-page Stephen Oronsaye Report amid renewed calls for reducing the cost of governance in the country, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on Wednesday, July 24, 2024, signed two bills into law creating the North West and South East development commissions. This was sequel to the passing of the two bills by both chambers of the National Assembly in June, 2024.
The two regional development bills signed into law by President Tinubu brought the number of development commissions in the country to four. The others are the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), which was the first to be established in 2000; and the North East Development Commission (NEDC) created in 2017. While the NDDC was established to bring development to the oil-producing states in the country, the NEDC was created to rebuild states in the North East where infrastructure was devastated by the Boko Haram insurgency.
While the North West Development Commission (NWDC), which is mandated to develop the seven North West states of Kano, Sokoto, Zamfara, Kebbi, Katsina and Kaduna, was sponsored by Deputy Senate President, Jibrin Barau; the South East Development Commission (SEDC), which was sponsored by the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, is responsible for the five South East states of Ebonyi, Imo, Abia, Enugu and Anambra.
The NWDC and the SEDC may not be the last of regional development commissions to be created by the federal government. Even before the president assented to the NWDC and SEDC bills, the Senate had already on July 4, 2024, passed a bill for the establishment of the North Central Development Commission (NCDC). While presenting their report, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Special Duties, Kaka Shehu, said the bill “aims to strengthen the economy and infrastructural development of the North Central Geopolitical Zone.”
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It is ridiculous that the signing of the NWDC and the SEDC bills came five months after the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), George Akume, on behalf of President Tinubu, inaugurated, the Committee on the Implementation of the Recommendations on the Review of Reports and White Papers on Restructuring and Rationalisation of Federal Government Parastatals, Agencies and Commissions.” The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, had on February 26, 2024, while speaking to state house correspondents after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, announced that President Tinubu had ordered the full implementation of the Oronsaye Report, which in effect included the merging, subsuming, scrapping and relocation of several agencies of government.
It would be recalled that former President Goodluck Jonathan set up the Presidential Committee on Restructuring and Rationalisation of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies under the leadership of a former Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mr Oronsaye. The Oronsaye Report, which was submitted in 2012, recommended the slashing of 263 of the statutory agencies to 161; the scrapping of 38 agencies; the merging of 52 and reverting 14 to departments in various ministries. The report revealed that the federal government had 541 parastatals, commissions and agencies. In 2014, the Jonathan government released a white paper on the report. The administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari, after re-examining the white paper, released a second white paper in August, 2022, but failed to implement the report.
With reports of gross misappropriation of funds that characterise the running of existing development commissions over the years, achieving the objectives for which they were established have not gone beyond an illusion. Even where contractors are mobilised with substantial amounts of project funds, the projects are hardly executed; and where executed, they are rarely completed. For instance, an NDDC forensic audit report carried out under former President Buhari revealed that the commission received over N6trn between 2001 and 2019, with no commensurable development to show for it. That is why abandoned projects litter the Niger Delta. Indeed, some regions see funds from these development commissions as their own share of the national cake. Instead of being catalysts for development, some of the commissions have become burdens on the government.
Antecedents of fraud from existing commissions justify the fears of Nigerians that the newly created development commissions are not likely to be anything better. Others suggest political motives to be behind the establishment of the newly created regional commissions as a prelude to the 2027 general elections. Beyond these insinuations is the fact that the government can still take national development to every geopolitical region or state through existing Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
While we encourage President Tinubu to quickly fulfil his vow to implement the Oronsaye Report, we similarly advise him against creating needless commissions which have not only become liabilities on the nation’s economy, but which development mandate could effectively be accomplished through relevant MDAs.
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