Over 50 chief executives of federal government ministries, departments and agencies risk sack while about 50 others may be redeployed when the federal government white paper on the restructuring and rationalisation of government agencies is released by the committee headed by the attorney-general of the federation, Mohammed Bello Adoke, LEADERSHIP can report.
The sack will result from the adoption of the recommendations of the Steve Oronsaye-led committee set up by President Goodluck Jonathan to restructure federal government MDAs, which recommended that 38 agencies be abolished, 52 be merged and a reduction of the 263 agencies to 161, in a bid to reduce the cost of governance, which government said was one of the highest in the world.
The Oronsaye committee had also recommended the scrapping of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), which, it, noted should not have come into existence in the first place, for the simple reason that “what the FRSC was set up to do is a replication of the mandates of two existing bodies, namely: the Highway Department of the Federal Ministry of Works with respect to the maintenance of safety and orderliness on our highways and the role of the Nigeria Police Force in ensuring law and order on our roads”.
LEADERSHIP gathered that the National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOURS) is to be merged with the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), while the National Gallery of Arts will be merged with the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM), all are agencies in the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation. Also, the National Institute for Cultural Orientation and the National Council for Arts and Culture are likely to be merged, just as the National Troupe of Nigeria will be swallowed by the National Theatre.
When asked to confirm these planned mergers, Ambrose Momoh, chief press secretary to the attorney-general of the federation, said he did not have any information as to the planned merger, and several attempts to reach the AGF on phone failed.
Speaking on the adoption of recommendations of the Oronsaye report by the Adoke-led committee, saddled with the task of coming up with a white paper, Yusuf Ali (SAN) told LEADERSHIP that though the AGF “is not necessarily bound to accept all the recommendations, some of the recommendations can be reworded”. Barrister Alasa Ismail also agrees with Ali as, in his opinion, “the AGF can either reject, accept or modify some of the recommendations. The government is not bound to accept hook line and sinker, otherwise it is no longer a recommendation but directive”.
SOURCE: 26 June 2012.
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