FOUR months after approving the full implementation of Orosanye’s Report, President Bola Tinubu has created a new ministry.
The President on Tuesday, July 9, announced the creation of the Federal Ministry of Livestock Development, bringing the number of Federal Government ministries to 36.
According to the President, the move is expected to end the constant clashes between herders and farmers.
He announced the new ministry at the inauguration of the Presidential Committee on Livestock Reforms at the Council Chamber of the State House in Abuja.
The ICIR reports that Nigeria has been locked in years of conflicts between farmers and herders, leading to thousands of deaths, displacements, food scarcity and unending disputes.
Efforts by successive governments to end the impasse have failed, as the crisis ballooned under the former President Muhammadu Buhari’s government, a retired Army General and a livestock farmer.
It has also failed to cease under Tinubu, one year after he took over power.
There have been killings in Plateau, Benue, Taraba, Osun, Oyo, Ondo, Ekiti, Enugu, Abia, Ebonyi and several other states with attendant deaths and disruption to crop and animal farming.
Plateau and Benue have been the epicentre of the crisis.
On January 1, 2018, suspected herders killed over 70 Benue residents in what is arguably the largest tragedy in the state.
The ICIR reported in 2021 how herders invaded a Plateau community in a reprisal attack despite military presence.
This organisation has published scores of reports on farmers and herders attacks and killings in Plateau, Benue and other states.
There have been several interventions by local and international organisations to resolve the enmity between the parties without success.
The ICIR reported how Zambia, Gambia and South Africa offered the country refresher courses on cattle management.
But Tinubu believes the creation of the ministry will fix the crisis.
“To enable Nigeria to finally take advantage of livestock farming, we have seen the solution and opportunity for this adversity that has plagued us over the years, and I believe the prosperity is here in our hands,” Tinubu stated.
The ICIR also reports that the new ministry is coming when Nigeria’s budget funding is threatened by a dip in oil production, the country’s major source of revenue and many Nigerians struggle to feed because of uncontrollable inflation.
As of March 2024, the country’s oil production dropped to 1.23 million barrels per day (bpd), from the 1.32 million daily production in February 2024.
This figure is based on data from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) monthly oil market report for March.
Running ministries takes a huge toll on Nigeria’s meagre resources, much of which is corruptly diverted into the private purses of public officials, as seen in scores of corruption cases involving former public officeholders in the nation’s courts.
In August 2023, The ICIR reported that paying 45 ministers in Tinubu’s cabinet would gulp N30 million monthly.
In another report, this organisation detailed what the President, his Vice, Governors, Ministers and their aides receive as salaries.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian workers have been angry over the Federal Government’s failure to implement a new minimum wage, making them threaten a longer strike than they did recently and consequently shutting down the nation’s economy.
Nigeria’s current minimum wage is N30,000 which some states have refused to pay since it became law in 2019.
What the implementation of Orosanye’s Report mean
The Oronsaye’s report on public sector reforms, presented in 2012, showed there were 541 statutory and non-statutory federal government parastatals, commissions and agencies.
The current Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, said multiple agencies would be scrapped, while others would be merged to cut governance costs.
On her part, the special adviser to the President on policy coordination, Hadiza Bala-Usman, said Tinubu had constituted a committee to implement the report within 12 weeks.
The Oronsaye-led panel was constituted in 2011 by former President Goodluck Jonathan to identify inadequacies in the country’s civil service.
The committee suggested the closure and merger of 102 government agencies and parastatals in its 800-page report.
In 2014, the report’s white paper committee turned in their work.
The report’s recommendations have not been implemented since it was submitted.
A reporter with the ICIR
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