IN SHORT: While Nigeria's Federal Executive Council has approved the restructuring of some agencies, parastatals and commissions, a list of scrapped agencies doing the rounds online is false.
Nigeria’s Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the recommendations of a committee on the reform of public institutions.
The report by Stephen Orosanye seeks to restructure agencies, parastatals and commissions. The Oronsaye committee was set up by the Nigerian government in 2011 to conduct a comprehensive review of federal agencies and make recommendations for restructuring.
Its recommendations included merging, subsuming and abolishing agencies with similar functions.
Bayo Onanuga, special adviser to president Bola Tinubu, said the report was submitted to the Goodluck Jonathan administration in 2012 and a white paper on the report was produced in 2014.
The Muhammadu Buhari-led government revisited the white paper in 2022 and published a second white paper on the report in the same year.
The Tinubu administration in 2024 decided to implement elements of the report.
A list of approved agencies to be “scrapped, merged, relocated and subsumed” was published by some news outlets.
But a message shared on Facebook in Nigeria claims that the Nigerian government has scrapped these agencies:
- FRCN, the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria
- ICPC, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission
- NCDC, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control
- NCC, the Nigeria Communications Commission
- NTA, the Nigeria Television Authority
The post reads: “FG Scrap FRCN, ICPC, NCDC, NCC, NTA, several Others.”
Other Facebook posts echoed the claim here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
Have the agencies listed in the Facebook posts, many of which are large organisations, all been axed? We checked.
Listed agencies not to be scrapped
On the basis of the FEC’s approval, 15 agencies were to be merged, nine were to be absorbed and the remaining four were to be relocated.
According to media reports, the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate and the National Senior Secondary Education Commission were the two agencies approved by the FEC to be abolished.
The Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria will be merged with the Voice of Nigeria.
Despite the inauguration of the implementation committee, which will work for 12 weeks, the Nigerian government has yet to implement the mergers and others at the time of writing.
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