LAURETTA ONOCHIE

The Oronsaye Report is about making government smaller, less wasteful and more useful — so that money spent maintaining unnecessary bureaucracy can instead be spent on Nigerians. The report dates back to 2012. A committee chaired by former Head of the Civil Service Stephen Oronsaye examined the huge number of federal parastatals, commissions and agencies. It identified 541 bodies and recommended, among other measures, reducing 263 statutory agencies to 161, abolishing 38, merging 52 and returning 14 to departments within ministries.  The central problem was duplication: different agencies were sometimes being funded to perform similar or overlapping jobs. THE ORONSAYE REPORT: WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO THE ORDINARY NIGERIAN? Imagine a family which earns ₦300,000 every month. But that family maintains three drivers when it owns only one car; three generators when it needs one; and several people doing essentially the same job. Every month, money goes into their salaries, offices, vehicles...