Some civil servants want the federal government to cut the cost of governance by reducing the number of ministers and merging the two federal legislative houses.

The civil servants spoke to journalists on Sunday in Abuja against the backdrop of the recent presidential directive on immediate implementation of the Oronsaye report.

The 2014 Stephen Oronsaye Presidential Committee on Restructuring and Rationalisation of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies recommended merging and scrapping certain government agencies.

According to the presidency, if the report is implemented, 30 federal government agencies, commissions, and parastatals will either be scrapped, merged, or subsumed.

President Bola Tinubu recently ordered the immediate implementation of the report to reduce the cost of governance amid limited government revenue.

A senior civil servant, who spoke anonymously, said Mr Tinubu’s directive was a distraction from the harsh economic climate occasioned by ill-advised government policies.

He urged the president to start cutting the cost of governance by merging some ministries and reducing the number of ministers.

“It is a contradiction that the president is seeking to cut the cost of governance when he has appointed the highest number of ministers in the history of the country.

“With a 47-member cabinet, the moral justification to implement the report is lacking.

“I see the directive as diversionary, to shift focus from the biting hardship in the country,” he said.

According to Sule Ahmed, another civil servant, the president should initiate a constitutional amendment to reduce the number of lawmakers in the National Assembly.

“A constitutional amendment should pave the way for a reduction of the number of federal lawmakers,” he said.

” I will suggest that the Senate be scrapped so that we adopt the unicameral legislature. A bicameral legislature consumes so much resources with little gains,” he added.

Aisha Bala urged the government to ensure that whatever policy it implements does not result in job losses.

“I hope that the president is sincere about implementing the Orasanye report. In implementing it, the government should ensure that civil servants are not made to lose their jobs.

“The economy is bad enough already, with a very high unemployment rate. Any policy that results in further loss of jobs will be counterproductive at this time,” she said.

Tommy Okon, president of The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), said workers had been expressing fears of job loss, especially when mergers were likely to occur in ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).

Mr Okon urged the president to set up modalities to re-examine the report’s contents in line with the present national realities.

He urged the government to ensure that the acts establishing government agencies were repealed before the implementation to forestall litigations.

“Any job loss at this critical time of our socioeconomic challenges and food crisis will be a recipe for mass protest and industrial unrest,” he said.

Meanwhile, a former Senator, Shehu Sani, commended Mr Tinubu for ordering the full implementation of the Oronsaye report.

Mr Sani, however, advised the president to be cautious on the full implementation of the report.

According to him, if care is not taken, many federal civil servants will lose their jobs following the implementation of the report.

He urged the president and his team to be careful in its quest to cut the cost of governance so that civil servants do not lose their jobs. 

(NAN)