The federal government of President Bola Tinubu has finally taken a decision to implement the recommendations of the Steve Oronsaye panel on the restructuring and rationalisation of Federal agencies, parastatals and commissions.
A statement today, February 26, by the special adviser to President Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga listed the affected institutions as follows:
1. National Salaries, Income and wages Commission to be subsumed under Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission. The National Assembly will need to amend the constitution as RMAFC was established by the constitution.
2. Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission to be merged with Bureau of Public Enterprise and be rechristened as `Public Enterprises and Infrastructural Concession Commission
3. National Human Rights Commission to swallow Public Complaints Commission
4. Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate(PTAD) to be scrapped and functions to be taken over by Federal Ministry of Finance
5. NEMA and National Commission for Refugees to be fused to become National Emergency and Refugee Management Commission
6. Border Communities Development Agency to become a department under National Boundary Commission
7. NACA and NCDC to be merged
8. SERVICOM to become a department under the Bureau for Public Service Reform(BPSR)
9. NALDA to return to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.
10. Federal Ministry of Science to supervise a new agency that combines NCAM, NASENI and PRODA
11. National Commission for Museums and Monuments and National Gallery of Arts to become one entity that will be known as National Commission for Museums, Monuments and Gallery of Arts.
12. National Theatre to be merged with National Troupe.
13. Directorate of Technical Cooperation in Africa and Directorate of Technical Aid Corp to be merged under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
14. Nigerians in Diaspora Commission to become an agency under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
15. Federal Radio Corporation and Voice of Nigeria to be one entity to be known as Federal Broadcasting Corporation of Nigeria
16. National Biotechnology Development Agency(NABDA) and National Centre for Genetic Resources and Biotechnology to be emerged into an agency to be known as National Biotechnology Research and Development Agency(NBRDA).
17. National Institute for Leather Science Technology and National Institute for Chemical Technology to become one agency.
18. Nigeria Natural Medicine Development Agency and National Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Development to become one agency.
19. The National Metallurgical Development Centre and National Metallurgical Training Institute will be merged.
20. National Institute for Trypanosomiasis to be subsumed under Institute of Veterinary Research in Vom, Jos.
Onanuga said that an eight-man committee has a 12-week deadline to ensure that the necessary legislative amendments and administrative restructuring needed to implement the reforms are effected in an efficient manner.
He said that the committee comprises Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Head of the Civil Service, Attorney General and Justice Minister, Budget and Planning Minister, DG Bureau of Public Service Reform, Special Adviser to the President on Policy Coordination, Special assistant to the president on National Assembly, adding that the Cabinet Affairs Office will serve as the secretariat.
The Oronsaye report was submitted in 2012 to the Goodluck Jonathan administration. In 2014, the Jonathan government released a white paper on the report.
The Muhammadu Buhari administration, after re-examining the white paper, also released a second white paper in August 2022, but did not implement the report.
