State governors have called on President Muhammadu Buhari to reduce the number of Federal Government agencies to further cut the cost of governance.
The governors held that there was an urgent need to revisit the Steve Oronsaye report on rationalisation of agencies in view of the country’s economic situation.
Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents after a meeting of the National Economic Council on Thursday.
“At the federal level, we are suggesting a look at the Oronsaye Report. We have discussed very important steps to be taken.
“We have suggested looking at the Oronsaye Report that suggested merger and reduction of the agencies. FG has 580 agencies. They are too many and they cost too much.
“There is the need to look at those that are duplicated and merge them. That is a report published since 2012. Even within MDAs, we need to consider merging departments. We may not need as many departments as we have.”
el-Rufai said state governors had decided to toe a similar path and reduce cost of governance.
According to him, this would affect the number of cars in their convoys.
“We have discussed implementing a public service renewal programme to get younger people, more IT-savvy people into the public service.
“My state, for instance, has placed an embargo on employment since 2008. For eight years, young people were not employed.
“So, the average age in the service is very high; it is 47. People that are that old are afraid of gadgets.
“The world has become a world of technology and it is these young people that are comfortable with technology,” he said.
