Some civil servants have lauded President Bola Tinubu’sdecision to merge, scrap and subsume some Departments and Agencies of government in order to reduce cost of governance.
The civil servants who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja said “it is a right decision that came at the right time” as the country is battling with economy downturn.They commended Tinubu for his courageous and purposeful leadership to implement the Steve Oronsaye reports on cutting down cost of governance which they said, previous administrations failed to implementIt would be recalled that the Oronsaye report was submitted in 2012 to former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration which released a white paper on the report.
Former Present Muhammadu Buhari inherited the report, released a second white paper on it in 2022, but failed to implement it.Mrs Doris Nsa, a civil servant, lauded the decision by the Tinubu’s administration to carry out the recommendations of the Oronsaye report.“I believe that if the contents of the report are followed and fully implemented, they will address a lot of issues because the cost of governance in Nigeria is outrageous.“I am very sure that the money being given to some of the heads of these parastatal agencies will now be channelled into other things that will directly mpact the economy and alleviate poverty,” Nsa saidMr Muhammed Dada, another civil servant said the report directed for implementation was aimed at restructuring and rationalising federal government’s parastatal agencies and commissions.Dada, commended the Tinubu’s government for taking such decision even when Nigerians had lost hope of implementing the reports.“A lot of us have even forgotten about the Oronsaye reports, not knowing that the president was still having it in mind to work on it.“This is highly commendable,” he said.
Another respondent, Mr Christopher Ukpana, said the decision was right because many of the affected agencies were playing duplicated roles” Let’s take a critical look at the mandates of National Agency for the Control of Aids and the Centre for Disease Control, these two agencies are functioning almost the same way.“You will agree with me that the budget of the year for both agencies will also come together, their CEOs too will now become one person and the money will now go for other things.Similarly, Miss Ijeoma Ikechukwu, said the measure became necessary to enhance efficiency in service delivery, adding that it will go a long way to reduce the cost of governance in Nigeria.“I was expecting this decision since the Buhari’s administration as Nigeria is owing a lot of foreign and local debts..“So, merging them or even scrapping some of them will safe the country a lot from wastages,” Ikechukwu said.
He, However urged the government to ensure that the process of merging and scrapping the agencies followed due process and legal provisions.Ikechukwu also enjoined the government to ensure that any civil servant that is affected by the implementation of the rationalisation should be adequately taken care of. (NAN)
