Falana said the 12-year-old report had been overtaken by many events and the creation of more ministries and agencies.
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana has described the Steve Oronsaye Report recommending the merger of Nigerian government agencies and commissions as “completely outdated”.
Falana said the 12-year-old report had been overtaken by many events and the creation of more ministries and agencies.
The list of government agencies to be scrapped or merged following a directive given by President Bola Tinubu was released on Monday by his Special Adviser Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.
SaharaReporters had reported how Tinubu ordered the full implementation of the 2012 Steve Oronsaye report.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan established the presidential committee on government agency reform in 2011, which was chaired by Steven Oronsaye, the Federation's former Head of Service.
Its terms of reference had included among other things, reviewing the enabling Acts and mandates of all federal agencies, parastatals, and commissions to identify areas of overlap or duplication of functions.
The committee had recommended reducing 263 statutory agencies to 161, abolishing 38, merging 52, and reverting 14 to departments in ministries. However, a white paper committee led by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Mohammed Adoke rejected the majority of the recommendations.
In 2021, the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari 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 MDAs created between 2014 and 2021.
Affirming President Bola Tinubu’s commitment to implement the report in a press statement issued by Onanuga on Monday evening, the government listed several agencies and commissions that were affected by the directive.
For instance, the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission is to be subsumed under the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission.
However, Falana, in a statement on Tuesday, said, “No doubt, the implementation of some of the recommendations of the Panel will take appreciable time as the merger of certain bodies require constitutional amendments or repeal of a number of statutes.
“The 800-page report of the Steve Oronsaye Panel recommended the reduction of statutory agencies from 263 to 161, scrapping 38 agencies, merging 52, and reverting 14 to departments in different ministries.
“Since the Goodluck Jonathan administration produced a White Paper on the Steve Oronsaye Report in 2014, the Federal Government has created more ministries, departments and agencies.
“Whereas the Report recommended the reduction of 263 agencies to 151, the number of ministries, departments and agencies has increased to 1316. Even the current administration has increased the number of ministries and created new agencies. To that extent, the Steve Oronsaye Report is completely outdated.
“However, in implementing the Oronsaye Report the Federal Government should ensure that the crisis of insecurity is not compounded through the retrenchment of hundreds of thousands of workers.
“Instead of downsizing the public service the Federal Government should ensure that the two houses of the National Assembly are merged while the number of Ministers, Special Advisers, Senior Special Assistants and Special Assistants is significantly reduced.”