Agency Headed By Oyetola’s Loyalist, NIWA To Be Scrapped

The National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) is among the Federal Government Agencies that will be scrapped following a directive by President Bola Tinubu that the Steve Oronsaye report be fully implemented.

Osun Defender reports that a former Commissioner for Finance in Osun State, Bola Oyebamiji, who is a loyalist of the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Mr. Gboyega Oyetola, is the Chief Executive Officer of NIWA.

According to available information, NIWA may return as a department under the parent Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy.

Also recommended to be scrapped and placed as departments or units in relevant ministries were the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC), the National Board for Technical Education, the National Commission for Colleges of Education, the Federal Character Commission, the Gurara Water Management Authority (GWMA), the Nigeria Integrated Water Resources Management Commission (NIWRMC), the Commercial Law Department, and the Centre for Automotive Design and Development (CADD).

Tinubu, according to his Special Adviser on Policy Coordination, Hadiza Bala-Usman, constituted a committee to implement the mergers, scrapping, and relocations within 12 weeks.

Former President Goodluck Jonathan had in 2011 set up the Presidential Committee on Restructuring and Rationalisation of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions, and Agencies under the chairmanship of a former Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Steve Oronsaye.

The committee submitted an 800-page report on April 16, 2012, wherein it uncovered a high level of competition among many overlapping agencies that created ill feelings among government agencies and caused expenditure wastages.

It also recommended, among other things, that government funding of professional bodies and councils be discontinued to free funds for capital projects.

The Oronsaye report established that there were 541 parastatals, commissions, and agencies (statutory and non-statutory) and recommended that 263 of the statutory agencies should be reduced to 161, while 38 agencies should be abolished and 52 should be merged.

The committee also recommended that 14 of the agencies revert to departments in ministries.