Oronsaye report: Six new MDAs, 50 proposed agencies may stall implementation

The President Bola Tinubu administration has created no fewer than six new ministries, departments and agencies despite pledging to implement the Stephen Oronsanye Report as part of moves to restructure the federal civil service and reduce the cost of governance.

In addition, the Federal Government is proposing 50 new agencies, further complicating the planned implementation of the Oronsaye Report.

On February 26, 2024, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, in a post on X (formerly Twitter) announced the President’s decision.

“Twelve years after the Steve Oronsaye panel submitted its report on restructuring and rationalising the Federal Government’s parastatals and agencies and a white paper issued two years after, President Tinubu and the Federal Executive Council today decided to implement the report. Many agencies will be scrapped and many others will be merged, to pave the way to a leaner government,” he said.

The Presidency also released a list of agencies to be scrapped and those to be merged.

In 2011, former President Goodluck Jonathan set up the presidential committee on the reformation of government agencies chaired by Oronsaye, a former Head of Service of the Federation.

Its terms of reference included, among others, examining the enabling Acts and mandates of all the federal agencies, parastatals, and commissions to determine areas of overlap or duplication of functions.

The committee, in its report, recommended that of the 541 Statutory and Non-Statutory Federal Government Parastatals, Agencies and Commissions, 263 statutory agencies should be reduced to 161, 38 agencies should be abolished, 52 agencies should be merged, and 14 should revert to departments in ministries.

A white paper committee, headed by the then Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke, reviewed the report and rejected most of the recommendations of the committee when it submitted its report in 2014.

However, the approved recommendations were not implemented until the Jonathan administration left office in 2015.

In 2021, the Muhammadu Buhari administration inaugurated two committees to implement the report.

One of the committees headed by a former Head of Service, Bukar Aji, was mandated to review the Oronsaye Report and the government white paper.

 The other committee chaired by Amal Pepple was mandated to review the MDAs created between 2014 and 2021.

The then Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, in July 2022, set up another white paper committee, headed by Ebele Okeke, to review the report of the Pepple committee.

However, the Buhari administration failed to implement the report.

While the discourse on the implementation of the report was ongoing, the National Assembly and successive governments have been creating agencies and institutions, thereby increasing the cost of governance in the process.

The consequence of the bloated government has been the steady increase in the recurrent expenditure of the Federal Government.

Between February 2024 and March 2025, many new agencies were approved by the presidency.

On July 9, 2024, the President approved the creation of the Ministry of Livestock Resources.

This followed the recommendation of the National Livestock Reforms Committee on September 14, 2023.

The ministry was expected, to, among other deliverables, reduce the decades-long bloody conflict between farmers and nomadic cattle herders.

Other new agencies approved by the President since then include the South-East Development Commission, North-Central Development Commission, North-West Development Commission, South-West Development Commission and the Nigerian Education Loan Fund. These agencies have so far taken off.

Meanwhile over 50 bills for the establishment of new agencies and commissions have been announced in the National Assembly within the review period.

These exclude bills for the establishment of new tertiary institutions of learning and health whose number continues to rise daily due to the quest by the lawmakers to create constituency projects.

On February 29, 2024, the Senate passed for a second reading a Bill to establish the National Assembly Budget and Research Office.

Also on March 12, lawmakers in the House of Representatives passed for a second reading a bill to establish a bank to “provide financial support, promote investment and foster sustainable development” in the mining sector.

It was sponsored by Uchenna Okonkwo, the lawmaker representing Idemili North and South federal constituency of Anambra State.

On March 19, another lawmaker in the lower House, Abubakar Fulata, pushed for the establishment of the Nigeria Digital Literacy Management Office.

Similarly, the Senate pushed for the first reading on the same day, a bill for the establishment of the Police Pension Board as sponsored by Yaroe Dauda (Adamawa North).

The bill for the establishment of the Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute was introduced for first reading in the House of Representatives on March 20 by Bello Ambarura.

Others include bills for the establishment of the Surrogacy Commission, Tech Transfer Commission, Child Rights and Welfare Commission, South-East Erosion Control Commission, Solid Minerals Development Commission, National Tax Crimes Commission, Mining Development Bank, National Food Reserve Agency, Local Government Election Commission, Animal Husbandry Ranches Commission and Projects Development Agency, among others.

Speaking on the proposed restructuring of the civil service in June 2024, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, said work was still in progress on the Oronsaye report.

“There is a progress on it. You recall it (the report) was handed to a special committee to review. That committee is still working on it. Once it is ready, it will be presented to the government,” he stated.

Last August, the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila,  equally claimed the government was working out all the necessary modalities to ensure a smooth run of the policy when it is implemented.

Speaking during a visit to the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative headquarters in Abuja, the CoS, however, said could not provide an exact timeline for implementation.

He noted the need for thoroughness before implementing the report, saying “Anything worth doing is worth doing properly.”

“Oronsaye’s report is being worked upon. Yes, we’ve been talking about this for months now but anything worth doing is worth doing properly,”  Gbajabiamila said.

“It is not as easy as it sounds. A committee has been set up to look at it and I am sure very soon, the final report will be out and implementation will begin.

“I can’t give an exact timeline but soon..We don’t want to sacrifice thoroughness on the altar of anxiety or anxiousness about getting things done. It will be done soon.”

 Calls to the spokesperson for the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Segun Imohiosen, rang out.  He had yet to respond to a query on the delay in restructuring the public service as of the time of filing this report on Sunday.