With citizens battling to overcome the challenges posed by the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Government has announced plans to implement the long-standing Oronsaye report on downsizing the federal bureaucracy. The downsizing involves restructuring and rationalisation of Federal Government parastatals, commissions and agencies. The report recommends the abolishment and merging of 102 government agencies and parastatals, with a view to empower Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to be more effective with less cost implications. According to the Finance Minister, Zainab Ahmed, the President’s approval to implement this report has been forwarded to the Head of Civil Service and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF). Government To Implement Downsizing RecommendationsWith citizens battling to overcome the challenges posed by the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Government has announced plans to implement the long-standing Oronsaye report on downsizing the federal bureaucracy. The downsizing involves restructuring and rationalisation of Federal Government parastatals, commissions and agencies. The report recommends the abolishment and merging of 102 government agencies and parastatals, with a view to empower Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to be more effective with less cost implications. According to the Finance Minister, Zainab Ahmed, the President’s approval to implement this report has been forwarded to the Head of Civil Service and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF).
In light of the high cost of governance in Nigeria, piling debts, depleting government revenue, and the multiplicity of organs and functions within the Civil Service, this strategy may prove beneficial to managing resources at the government’s disposal and making the Civil Service system more effective. It is not yet clear how the government seeks to achieve this. However, observers wonder if this will translate to many more citizens becoming unemployed, in an uncertain and difficult time, when organisations within other sectors of the economy are laying off workers. The President may have provided some pointers on this issue in his message commemorating the 2020 Workers’ Day, as he stated that the government will ensure that no employer would retrench workers without recourse to due process and stressed that the Presidential Economic Sustainability Committee is working to reposition the economy by exploring means to grow Nigeria’s non-oil sector.