Despite promising to follow the Stephen Oronsanye Report as part of efforts to reorganise the federal public service and lower the cost of governance, the President Bola Tinubu administration has established no less than six new ministries, divisions, and agencies.
The Oronsaye Report’s intended implementation is further complicated by the Federal Government’s proposal to create 50 new agencies.
The decision of the president was revealed on February 26, 2024, by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, in a post on X (previously Twitter).
“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.
A list of agencies to be consolidated and those that would be dissolved was also made public by the presidency.
Oronsaye, a former Head of Service of the Federation, is the chair of the presidential committee on government agency reform that former President Goodluck Jonathan established in 2011.
Examining the enabling Acts and mandates of all federal agencies, parastatals, and commissions to identify areas of overlap or duplication of activities was one of its many responsibilities.
Of the 541 Statutory and Non-Statutory Federal Government Parastatals, Agencies, and Commissions, the committee’s report suggested that 263 statutory agencies be whittled down to 161, 38 agencies be eliminated, 52 agencies be merged, and 14 be returned to ministry departments.
When the report was presented in 2014, it was examined by a white paper committee led by Mohammed Adoke, who was the Minister of Justice and the Attorney-General of the Federation at the time. The committee rejected the majority of its suggestions.
However, it was not until the Jonathan administration’s departure in 2015 that the accepted suggestions were put into action.
Two committees were established by the Muhammadu Buhari government in 2021 to execute the report.
The Oronsaye Report and the government white paper were to be reviewed by one of the committees led by former Head of Service Bukar Aji.
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.
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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.
During the review phase, the National Assembly has announced more than 50 legislations for the creation of new commissions and agencies.
These do not include measures for the creation of new health and education facilities, the number of which is growing every day as a result of politicians’ efforts to develop constituency projects.
A bill to create the National Assembly Budget and Research Office was approved by the Senate for a second reading on February 29, 2024.
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 he could not provide an exact timeline for implementation.
