Obasanjo faults merger of parastatals
- Orders return to status quo
From John-Abba Ogbodo and Paschal Nwigwe, Abuja
PRESIDENT Olusegun Obasanjo has picked holes in the on-going merger of parastatals under the National Planning Commission (NPC), just as the body admitted procedural error in the exercise.
The Guardian learnt that the President pointed out the procedural error yesterday during a meeting with the members of the House Committee on National Planning and Economic Development led by the chairman, Dare Salako.
Worried by perceived lopsidedness in the merger and scrapping of some parastatals under the National Planning Commission, the committee had protested to the President consequent upon which a meeting was scheduled for yesterday.
But at the meeting, sources disclosed to The Guardian, Obasanjo was said to have expressed displeasure over the way and manner the NPC had gone about the exercise.
The NPC had proposed a merger of the Nigerian Institute for Social and Economic Research (NISER) and National Manpower Board (NMB) or even the phasing out of the latter.
The commission also proposed the scrapping of the National Centre for Economic Management and Administration (NCEMA) in Ibadan or making it a department under Centre for Management Development (CMD) in Lagos.
Similarly, the National Data Bank was proposed to be a department under the Federal Office of Statistics.
The Permanent Secretary in the commission, Dr. Babangida Aliyu, had on May 12, 2004 in a letter, informed the heads of the parastatals about the rationalisation and directed the scrapped parastatals "to submit draft memos to the Federal Executive Council through the commission along with a draft Act to repeal their existing law."
He added: "Similarly, the taking over parastatals are to examine their existing laws and determine if they can accommodate the additional functions."
The letter also directed that "merger completed, scrapped parastatals fully phased out and those taking over ready to start work by 1st October, 2004."
However, at yesterday's meeting, the President expressed displeasure over the way and manner the exercise had been carried out, pointing out that he did not give a go ahead for merger or scrapping.
According to sources, the President said he expected the commission to have forwarded a memo to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) after the work of the technical committee for a thorough deliberation so that a bill could be sent to the National Assembly for approval before the eventual merger.
He, therefore, directed that the NPC should revert to the status quo.
The Chief Economic Adviser to the President and chief executive of the commission, Prof. Ode Ojowu, while inaugurating the technical committee for the rationalisation exercise, charged them to complete the exercise by October, 2004.
Prior to yesterday's meeting with the President, the House Committee had had an interactive session with officials of NPC during which the permanent secretary admitted that the word "scrap" sneaked into the memo.
The committee had queried the exercise on the ground that the laws establishing the parastatals were not amended.
They also argued that the parastatals had already been recognised in the 2004 Appropriation Act with allocations to them.
In a related development, the House of Representatives yesterday passed a resolution calling on the National Planning Commission and other relevant agencies to carry out more enlightenment campaign on the thrust of the National Economic Empowerment Development Strategies (NEEDS).
