TheCable

The house of representatives has asked President Bola Tinubu to “comprehensively review” the Oronsaye report before implementing it.

The lower legislative chamber passed the motion during plenary on Thursday, following the adoption of a motion jointly sponsored by Kama Nkemkanma from Ebonyi, Olumide Osoba from Ogun, and Jonathan Gaza from Nasarawa.

The green chamber said the report should be reviewed to bring it up to speed with current realities. 

BACKGROUND

On Tuesday, Tinubu directed the full implementation of the Oronsaye report.⁣

In 2011, former President Goodluck Jonathan constituted the Stephen Oronsaye-led panel to identify inadequacies in the country’s civil service.

In 2012, the committee submitted an 800-page report and recommended the scrapping and merging of 102 government agencies and parastatals.

Since then, the recommendations of the report have not been implemented.

Tinubu has constituted an eight-member committee — which includes George Akume, secretary to the government of the federation; and Folashade Yemi-Esan, head of the civil service — and handed them a 12-week deadline to propose legislative amendments to the report. 

THE MOTION

Moving the motion, Nkemkanma, the lead sponsor, said the report “may be described as outdated, especially because of how dynamic the society, economy, polity, technology and all facets of our national life have been”.

The legislator said “contrary to the assumption that the full implementation of the report would reduce the cost of governance, with the current realities, the full implementation of the report will not substantially reduce the cost of governance as it does not reflect the current situation in the public service of the federation”.

“The full implementation of the 2012 Oronsaye report in 2024 will certainly throw up unintended consequences, implications and outcomes,” he added.

The motion, which was not debated, was unanimously adopted by the lawmakers when it was put to a voice vote by Tajudeen Abbas, speaker of the house.

Consequently, the house asked Tinubu to “comprehensively review” the Orosanye report, Goni Aji report, the white paper released by the Jonathan administration on the report, Ama Pepple white paper, and the Ebele Okeke white paper “in tune with current realities” to have “minimum unintended consequences, impacts, implications and outcomes”.