Why Buhari cannot merge MDAs – Abah

Whispers of President Muhammadu Buhari’s plan to implement the recommendations from the Ahmed Joda-led transition committee, to merge Ministries Departments and Agencies, MDAs, have led the Director General of the Bureau of Public Service Reforms, BPSR, Joe Abah to advise against the move, hinting on identifiable pitfalls and significant errors.

Abah made this declaration while speaking at a retreat with Directors of reforms coordination in Ministries and Departments organized by the European Union in Kaduna on Wednesday, August 26.

The former Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Stephen Oronsaye had in a report advocated for the streamlining of ministries and parastatals, a suggestion later corroborated by the Joda-led committee which also recommended the slashing of ministries to 19.

This was premised upon calling for a total rationalization of Federal Government parastatals, commissions and agencies, in an attempt to cut down the cost of governance. 

Dr. Abah in reaction to these calls, stated that such recommendations contain “significant errors” which when implemented could be detrimental to the nation and therefore called on Buhari to take a holistic review of the white papers and reports.

“Our position at BPSR having been the secretary to the implementation committee of the white paper is that the new government needs to have a holistic review of the report and the white paper because in trying to implement it, we came across a number of challenges.
“For instance, there were significant errors both in the Oransanye report and the government white peper.
“The recommendation was that don’t give them any money whereas they are the professional body that regulates mining engineers.
“Even in the white paper in one section, it was saying we are scraping the salaries and wages commission and merging it with Revenue Mobilization and fiscal commission whereas in another section, it was saying the wages commission remains.”

A recent poll by NOI also revealed that 72% of Nigerians support the proposed merger of MDAs, highlighting the merger of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC as a top priority.

Other suggestions include the merging of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development with the Ministry of water resources; Ministry of Aviation with the Ministry of Transport amongst others.

Culled from Post-Nigeria.