Thirteen years after the government of former President Goodluck Jonathan set up the presidential committee on restructuring and rationalisation of Federal Government parastatals, commissions and agencies, as a way of cutting the huge cost of governance, the move rather than bring an end to the public wastage, has proved to be a tall dream.
The committee, which was headed by a retired federal civil servant and former Head of Service of the Federation, Stephen Oronsaye, was not only mandated to find a way to reverse the epidemic of multiplication of governmental agencies, but to also make recommendations to the government.
Years after the Oronsaye committee had concluded its job, submitted an 800 page report and recommended the abolition and merger of 102 government agencies and parastatals, the subsequent governments had failed to implement the recommendations.
Little wonder why once there is a new government in place, the report of the Oronsaye report always resurface with those in government pretending to make fresh moves to review and implement it, a move that often ends in futility despite the huge public funds sunk into the efforts by the different governments.
The report which has gone through two governments with the third government being that of President Bola Tinubu now reawakening the report, the scenario that has been playing out has not shown any sign that the aim of setting up the committee will bring any good tidings after all.
The implementation of the Oronsaye recommendations may not work in view of obvious reasons ranging from government’s failure to learn from mistakes of past governments, failure to separate political interests from the existing civil service rules and guidelines and many others which have led to the undue proliferation of the entire system.
It is widely known that the major reason for setting up the Oronsaye committee then was to help cut cost of governance through the reduction overheard of the government agencies and parastatals, including those in aviation.
It has been argued however, that when the government is finally ready to implement the report, the aviation agencies should be exempted from any form of merger for obvious reasons, particularly based on the distinctive functions each of the agencies perform.
Those who belong to this school of thought have spoken the minds of many stakeholders in the sector on the premise that each of the agencies has its role to play towards safety, security and seamless air transport.
The need to make flight operations secure is responsible for why, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) specifically emphasise that because each of the agencies had its critical roles to perform, it therefore, becomes unacceptable if an agency providing services for example is lumped together with a regulatory agency.
Therefore, any attempt to merge any of the agencies together may not only lead to safety issues, but may encourage lack of accountability when the need arises, particularly in times of emergencies.
Apart from the confusion the implementation of the report will create in aviation, it is obvious that when talking about agencies which fall into categories of those with huge financial burden, the aviation agencies should not be included because, as a matter of fact, some of the agencies even lack adequate manpower.
It is on record today that the number of air traffic controllers at the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) presently working to keep the airspace safe through the proper coordination and separation of aircraft fall below requirement, just as the inspectors the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) are inadequate on payroll of.
From all indications, failure to implement the report almost 13 years after can be traced to the insincerity on the part of the subsequent governments who, while planning to reduce the size of agencies, is still responsible for employing loosely without recourse to rules of the engagements.
Again, it is on record that subsequent governments, ministers and the political influencers have formed the habit of not only bringing in people with little or no knowledge about aviation to head sensitive units with heavy salaries allocated to them, the politicians even go the extra miles of creating irrelevant directorates for the purpose of accommodating their cronies at the expense of the professional and career workers.
All these outsiders being smuggled into the system should be held responsible for any over-bloated budget in the sector.
Obviously, this issue of proliferation and the unnecessary overstaffing of the agencies which though may not be limited to aviation makes no sense if the government is serious about implementing the Oronsaye report. Government does not have the moral right to talk about reducing cost of governance when its officials are regularly bringing to the agencies top level personnel with unmerited grades allocated to them.
Above all, even if all the agencies are collapsed into two, it will not lead to any reduction in the cost of governance if those in government continue to employ or recruit into the system with reckless abandon.
Read Also: Tinubu writes Senate, replaces nominee for CBN Board
