No fewer than 102 top government officials are at the risk of losing their jobs following the decision of the Bola Tinubu-led federal government to implement the Orasanye Committee report.

Recall that the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, disclosed the federal government’s decision to State House correspondents after Monday’s Federal Executive Council meeting at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja. ⁣

The Oronsaye report proposed a leaner government by merging some agencies and scrapping many others.

The 2012 committee, headed by a retired federal civil servant and former Head of Service of the Federation, Stephen Orasanye, recommended the scrapping and merging of 220 out of the then existing 541 government agencies.

If implemented, no fewer than 102 heads of agencies and parastatals will lose their jobs.

The committee’s 800-page report noted that the government’s parastatals and agencies’ functions are overlapping. It recommended the reduction of statutory agencies from 263 to 161.

The committee recommended the abolition of 38 agencies, the merger of 52 and the reversion of 14 to departments in ministries.

The committee also recommended the management audit of 89 agencies capturing biometric features of staff as well as the discontinuation of government funding of professional bodies/councils.

Oronsaye said then that if the committee’s recommendation was implemented, the government would be saving over N862 billion between 2012 and 2015.

The breakdown showed that about N124.8 billion would be reduced from agencies proposed for abolition; about N100.6 billion from agencies proposed for mergers; about N6.6 billion from professional bodies; N489.9 billion from universities; N50.9 billion from polytechnics; N32.3 billion from colleges of education and N616 million from boards of federal medical centres.

If implemented, agencies that may be affected include the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), and Federal Road Safety Commission (ICPC).

Other agencies cited doing overlapping functions are the Nigerian Communication Satellite Limited, the National Broadcasting Commission and the Nigeria Communications Commission in the area of frequency allocation.

Also, the Universal Basic Education Commission, Nomadic Education Commission, and National Mass Literacy Commission are performing overlapping functions and should be brought under one body.

The committee again believes NTA, FRCN, and VON should be under one management.

After the committee’s report, the White paper committee set up by Jonathan’s administration rejected most of the recommendations, while those accepted were not implemented.