DE-BLOATING NIGERIAN PUBLIC SERVICE

RETHINKING THE QUANDRY IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ORONSSYE 'S REPORT

Abstract

Public reforms are undertaken by governments to address policy deficits in a system. In Nigeria, the major problem with reform attempts is Government's quandary in implementation. For example, it was curious that over eight years after the release of the “White Paper on the Report of the Presidential Committee on Restructuring and Rationalisation of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies“in 2014 (Oronsaye Committee)”, with the core objective to review the mandates of all Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies, with a view to recommending scraping, merger or restructuring as appropriate, in order to remove duplicity”, the implementation of the accepted recommendations has remained in abeyance. This study was therefore, instituted to examine the causation in Government's quandary and inertia. The study adopted expository survey method, anchored on documentary and primary survey analysis; while the Systems Approach underpinned the theoretical framework. Salient among the findings were: (i) lack of political will, and (ii) entrenched interest of the political class, as the, major causes of Government's quandary; while the anticipated major deterioration in performance of the key macroeconomic variables, emanating from escalation in unsustainable diminution in good governance would exact debilitating effects on the wellbeing of the citizens. It was therefore,
recommended that the Federal Government should abandon all entrenched interests; and musters the political guts and indeed urgently implement the accepted recommendations, given the sliding revenue profile of Nigeria.