Trim the Cabinet to 36 Members — HURIWA Urges Tinubu

The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), a well-known civil rights advocacy organization, has praised President Bola Tinubu's decision to reduce the number of Federal Government-funded agencies in accordance with the Steven Oronsaye report.

HURIWA, however, asserts that the Nigerian government's decision to combine some agencies would be absurd if the excessively large executive cabinet of the Federation—which is currently composed of roughly 48 ministers—is not likewise whittled down to just 36, as the Nigerian Constitution suggests.

Following the Federal Executive Council meeting on Monday at the Aso Rock Villa in Abuja, Mohammed Idris, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, informed State House correspondents of the decision regarding the Oronsaye's report.

The FEC made several decisions, including the combination of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offenses Commission (ICPC), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), Voice of Nigeria (VON), and the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA).

It was also suggested that the Nigerian Communications Commission and the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) combine.

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 National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), the Commercial Law Department, and the Center for Automotive Design and Development (CADD) were among the agencies that were eliminated and reorganized as departments or units within pertinent ministries.

In a press release issued under the signature of Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, HURIWA's National Coordinator, the organization also applauded President Tinubu's administration's plan to provide youth unemployment benefits.

However, the Rights group issued a warning, stating that the unemployment benefits “would be abused and probably hijacked by politicians belonging to the ruling party to push forward their political thugs as the beneficiaries rather than the intended target.”

Therefore, HURIWA requests that before beginning to pay unemployment benefits to young people who genuinely deserve them, the government establish transparent, reliable, and accountable mechanisms that make it impossible for anyone to interfere.

Moreover, HURIWA is requesting that the Tinubu administration place greater emphasis on “developing the unemployed youths' human capacity and skills rather than just giving them handouts that can cripple their capacity for self-development, self actualization, and self-employment.”

HURIWA was thrilled that the Steven Oronsaye report's implementation means that “a number of government agencies would be combined, integrated, eliminated, and moved.”

The Rights organization stated that “it is economically wise to carry out thorough financial audits of the agencies to be merged or scrapped so as not to throw away the baby with the bathwater.”

Using the benefit of hindsight, HURIWA declared that “many of the apparently money-guzzling federal agencies deserve to be scrapped to save Nigeria from the heavy financial burden that such unproductive entities constituted.”

HURIWA noted that “the constitution of 48 ministers and 20 special advisers by President Bola Tinubu as his federal executive cabinet of the Federation is insensitive and costly,” which could jeopardize the admirable goal of implementing the Oronsaye report.

According to the Rights organization, “it is irrational to know that whereas the populace and the suffering masses including workers on low wages are called upon to endure record inflation and general hardship, the President's failure to rein in the cost of governance from the top is disappointing.”

HURIWA insisted that for a “administration facing headline inflation that continues to rise, having triggered naira devaluation, and faces dwindling foreign reserves and a rising public debt estimated by the Debt Management Office to be 37 per cent of GDP, a bloated cabinet is anomalous, irresponsible, unacceptable and despicable.”

HURIWA is adamant that “Tinubu has not yet demonstrated strong will to initiate drastic cost-cutting and he has since achieved the infamous record as Nigeria's largest federal cabinet ever,” despite rhetoric to the contrary.

The government's “appointment of acolytes and political associates signals prebendalism that is inappropriate at these times,” according to HURIWA. Furthermore, “the government can't possibly convince rational Nigerians that the government wants to cut the costs of governance when his federal cabinet is the largest not only in Africa but globally.”