The slump in crude oil prices and the consequent decline in government revenue have compelled the Federal Government to look at downsizing its unwieldy bureaucracy, but getting the support of lawmakers as well as the government’s lack of political will to take difficult decisions will constitute challenges.
The Nigerian government said it is going to implement the report of the Presidential Committee on Restructuring and Rationalisation of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies, commonly called the Oronsaye Report, after the committee chairman, Stephen Orosanye, a former head of the civil service.
“As part of efforts towards cutting the cost of governance, the FG has approved the immediate merger of 102 federal agencies in line with @bpsr_ng recommendations for Oronsaye report on restructuring and rationalisation of federal parastatals, commissions and agencies,” Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR) said in a Twitter post.
But the biggest hurdle the Federal Government will face in executing this plan is getting the support of lawmakers to cut unnecessary agencies.
“Most agencies are created by law. Therefore, you cannot legally scrap or merge them without going back to NASS (National Assembly). NASS is not interested and is busy creating new ones every day. What will you do?” said Joe Abah, country director of DAI, in a post on Twitter.
There are over 25 new federal agencies and commissions the National Assembly is planning to create, even though many that had been created since the past three years are yet to take off.
These include the Hydro Power Producing Areas Development Commission (HYPADEC) and the North East Development Commission (NEDC). It didn’t stop the legislators from creating the South East Development Commission.
Lawmakers tack on a new agency with almost every new law they pass. This expands their functions and makes a case for increased statutory transfers, a category where the National Assembly budget falls. In 2020, N560 billion was initially budgeted for it, before it was cut to N407.8 billion.
The previous whitepaper on the Oronsaye report indicates that a constitutional amendment is required to excise some government departments and agencies. For instance, it recommended the abolition of the Federal Character Commission and this required an amendment of the constitution to be carried out.
However, securing a constitutional amendment in Nigeria is strenuous. For the alteration of any part of the Nigerian constitution to be valid, it must be passed by the votes of not less than two-thirds majority of all the members of each chamber of the National Assembly, i.e., the Senate and the House of Representatives.
After it is passed by the requisite majority of the chambers, it must then be approved by resolution of the Houses of Assembly of not less than two-thirds or 24 states of all the 36 states in Nigeria. After the requisite number of states have approved the alterations, the proposed alterations will then be presented before the president for assent.
The Nigerian government often lacks the courage to take difficult economic decisions. Despite a bruising cost for subsidising petrol and electricity, the APC-led government has kept the policy.
Mele Kyari, group managing director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has said the government would no longer pay subsidies. But he is not empowered by law to make the pronouncement on the government’s behalf. Only the minster of petroleum, who incidentally is President Buhari, or the Petroleum Products Price Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) can make the call.
With oil income as buffer and questions about their legitimacy due to fraudulent elections, various Nigerian governments have preferred to play far away from the country’s fragile fault lines rather than take decisions which may be considered unpopular, even if necessary.
This could also play out when the panels constituted by the government to develop another whitepaper for the implementation of the Oronsaye report conclude their work. Already, Tanko Abdullahi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Finance, in an interview with another newspaper said that civil service jobs would not be affected in the course of implementing the report.
But this is exactly what the 800-page report recommended: gutting redundant government departments and agencies will cut recurrent expenditures and consequently lead to reducing the workforce.
Worse still, the government cannot continue to maintain its over-bloated workforce. It trimmed recurrent expenditure from N4.49 billion to N4.46 billion in its 2020 budget because its finances are in dire straits.
The shortfall in the government’s income compared to spending rose from N2.2 trillion to N5.18 trillion and it plans to meet this gap through a fresh borrowing of N4.43 trillion, the government said in its revised budget proposals.
Even before the COVID-19 outbreak, Nigeria’s economy was facing headwinds from rising external vulnerabilities and falling per capita GDP levels. The pandemic, along with the sharp fall in oil prices, has magnified the vulnerabilities, leading to a historic decline in growth and large financing needs, the International Monetary Fund said while approving $3.4 billion emergency support for Nigeria.
