By Fatai Abiodun
On Tuesday, I woke up to the news of the announcement made by President Bola Tinubu’s directive for the implementation of Stephen Oronsaye’s report as a means to cut the cost of governance.
It is important to recall that former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011 set up the Presidential Committee on Restructuring and Rationalisation of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies under the chairmanship of Stephen Oronsaye.
The Presidential Committee comprised of the following members—Stephen Oronsaye, Chairman; Japh CT Nwosu, Member; Rabiu D. Abubakar, Member; N. Salman Mann, Member; Hamza A. Tahir, Member; Adetunji Adesunkanmi, Member and Umar A. Mohammed, Member.
The Oronsaye report established that there are 541 Federal Government parastatals, commissions and agencies (statutory and non-statutory) as of then and it proposed that 263 of the statutory agencies should be reduced to 161, while 38 agencies should be abolished and 52 should be merged. The panel also recommended that 14 of the agencies should revert to departments in various ministries.
In June 2012, the Oronsaye’s Committee submitted its report to the Government and a White Paper Drafting Committee, headed by Mr Mohammed Bello Adoke, SAN, CFR, then-Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, was set up to study the recommendations of the report and proffer advice to the Federal Government on the implementation strategies.
It is important to state that the White Paper committee made far-reaching suggestions, rejections and approval on the items suggested by the Oransaye’s committee. The suggestions tabled by the then Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice committee touched on the constitution amendments amongst others.
Today, we have more than 1200 Federal Government parastatals, commissions and agencies (statutory and non-statutory). Surprisingly, then-President Goodluck Jonathan did not give any reason for the non-implementation of its Attorney General white paper report and former President Muhammadu Buhari who ordered the implementation of Oronsaye’s restructuring report also failed to give any reason for non-implementation.
The pertinent question to ask is, how come the government that was complaining about the cost of governance created more than 500 parastatals, commissions and agencies since 2011 till date?
No one needs to be told about the duplicity of tasks and powers of several agencies of the Government, and the National Assembly keeps creating new commissions when the existing ones can be amended to accommodate new innovations.
It’s surprising to hear that President Tinubu has also ordered full implementation of the Oransaye report without putting into consideration the suggestions made by the white paper committee headed by the former Minister of Justice, Mr Bello Adoke SAN, and without proper analysis of the reason why the past presidents failed to implement it.
It is important to state that those agencies, Parastatals and Commissions recommended for eradication, merging and transfer by the Oransaye’s report were creations and products of statutes. The Government lacks the power to unilaterally merge and abolish any agency created by the statute; it must be done in accordance with the law.
Section 4 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) vested the National Assembly with the legislative powers to make laws for the peace, order, and good government of the Federation concerning any matter included in the Exclusive Legislative List and the Concurrent List.
It is trite in law that the President in any form cannot by an administrative action or directive or command waive, eradicate and merge agencies, parastatals and commissions of the government predicated on law or statute.
When we are not in a banana republic, one would have expected the President to summon his Attorney General to re-study the recommendation of the White Papers committee report on the Oransaye’s led restructuring exercise rather than making a hasty announcement that would not yield any tangible result.
President Tinubu cannot do whatever he wants through mere orders. The president can only issue executive orders that are within the boundaries of existing law, or within the clearly defined constitutional of his powers. President Tinubu has zero authority to abolish any government agency created through legislation.
The purported agencies, parastatals and commissions listed by the Special Adviser to the President on Policy Coordination, Hadiza Usman to be merged and eradicated without doing the legally needful is illegal, unconstitutional and null and void with no single effect.
The presidency should demonstrate competency in handling the affairs of this nation and avoid the policy of trial and error. If President Tinubu is sincere about the implementation of Oransaye’s report which does not truly reflect the current reality of the total number of agencies, the president needs to re-constitute the committee and give them a timeline to make recommendations considering the reasons given by Bello Adoke’s white papers report.
It’s cardinal for President Tinubu to liaise with the National Assembly if he truly decides to carry out any restructuring in a bid to cut the cost of governance, and he must put a mechanism in place to validate the creation of new agency by the National Assembly before appending its signature to avoid the stories that touch.
Fatai Abiodun LLB, a Public Affairs Analyst writes from Abuja
albarka200709@yahoo.com
