NECA asks FG to implement Oronsanye report on MDAs

The Nigerian Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) has asked the Federal Government to set machinery in motion for the immediate implementation of the Oronsanye report which recommended the rationalisation of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of the government.

The NECA’s position comes as Emeka Wogu, minister of labour and productivity, said the government was taking measures to check the influx of expatriates into the country to take up jobs that can be competently handled by Nigerians. There has been a running battle between organised labour and multinational organisations over the issue of expatriates being used to replace Nigerians who have competencies for the jobs.

NECA at its 57th annual general meeting (AGM) in Lagos on Tuesday said the government must brush off what it called “ongoing lobbying” to stop the implementation of the Oronsanya committee recommendations, insisting that as observed in the report there are too many MDAs in the country with overlapping functions.

Richard Uche, NECA president, canvassing this position in his report at the AGM attended by critical stakeholders including Emeka Wogu, minister of labour; Abdulwaheed Omar, president, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC); Bobboi Kaigama, president of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and captains of industry said narrowing the MDAs would significantly reduce government recurrent expenditure thereby freeing funds for capital developments.

“We commend the government for accepting to implement the report, albeit partially. The fact, however, remains that there are too many government MDAs with overlapping responsibilities and the right thing to do is to rationalise the roles and responsibilities of these MDAs through integration, merger and in some instance, outright scrapping. We, therefore, advise the government to quickly move to the next stage of the implementation in spite of the lobbying and opposition, which is being driven by narrow stakeholders’ interest. We believe this will significantly reduce government’s recurrent expenditure,” Uche said.

The NECA president, who also spoke about the continuing infrastructural deficit, power failure, and their impact on the national productivity, despite the privatisation of the power sector, said the government needed to do more in these key sectors of the economy.

Uche also took a swipe at the overbearing regulatory roles of some government agencies, saying “most of them have elevated themselves to the level of king whose words cannot be questioned. Oftentimes they shun dialogues with the private sector and on some occasions, have been ruthless by shutting the gates of companies that refuse to give-in to their untoward actions and requests. We appeal to the government to call the agencies to order because they are killing local businesses and smearing Nigerian public image as an unfriendly investors’ destination.”

Emeka Wogu, represented by Jegbefumen Ebarekpenlu, a deputy director in the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity, while speaking at the AGM, said the government was already doing everything to check influx of expatriates to take up jobs that can be handled by Nigerians.