By BASHIR ADEFAKA
A human resource practitioner, Alhaji Abdullahi Ibrahim, has called for a Technical Committee to be set up to handle the Steve Oronsaye Report on public service reforms 2012 but just approved for implementation by Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The report had recommended the merging and scrapping of some Federal agencies and parastatals and the approval of it by the Tinubu-led Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting on Monday February 26, 2024 for its implementation.
Reacting to the FEC’s decision, Alhaji Ibrahim, who is a retired Director from the Kwara State Public Service and Fellow of Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPM), identified lack of political will, corruption and bureaucracy as impediments that have militated against the implementation of the Oronsaye Report since last 10 years.
It pointed out that the setting up of a Technical Committee comprising of qualified and competent public administrators for its implementation would achieve the laudable goals once and for all.
He said several pronouncements of implementation of the Report had been made in the last 10 years without effect as some chief executives of some of the affected agencies and parastatals were reportedly moving round to lobby top government functionaries, so that the implementation of the Report would not be possible as, according to the National Coordinator of Muslim Media Watch Group of Nigeria, they want to retain their jobs.
While commending President Bola Tinubu for directing the implementation of the Report, Alhaji Abdullahi Ibrahim said costs of governance, duplication of responsibilities and overlapping of functions have contributed to low performance at higher costs, stressing that if the Report is properly implemented, effectiveness and efficiency would feature in governance of Nigeria.
On the Constitution Amendment, the human resource expert called for a paradigm shift by National Assembly members from using the exercise to deceive the masses.
According to him, the exercise had been in futility in the last 10 years with billions of naira wasted on it by the legislature without implementation of the adopted amendments thereby leading to total waste of funds.
He also condemned the overbearing influence of state governors on members of their States’ Assemblies, which he said turned the whole Constitution Amendments exercise into jamborees and waste of funds without any tangible results.
He called for total independence of legislature in all states as well as democratisation of party nomination for offices at states and local governments levels.
He warned against Constitution Amendments done to favour the legislators and politicians rather than being done to favour the sole owners of the society that is the masses.
This he said by citing example of the continued retention of States Independent Electoral Commission (SIECs) and granting of gratuity and pension to former governors as inappropriate provisions that should be removed from the Nation’s Constitution.
He called for local government elections to be transferred to INEC and adoption of parliamentary system of government in Nigeria to save costs and improve governance in the country.
