Findings have revealed that between April 2015 and April 2023, approximately N20bn was allocated for presidential committees controlled by the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
According to The PUNCH, the president, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), since assuming office in 2015 has inaugurated at least 40 committees and councils to drive various government agendas.
The committees comprise various sectors: education, health, security, the digital economy, and the civil service.
Reacting to the amount gulped by these various committees, Research Director, Centre for China Studies, Abuja, Charles Onunaiju, said although committees were ad hoc vehicles to handle emerging concerns, most had seized tasks belonging to existing bodies and failed to achieve outcomes.
“We do not see what they have achieved in terms of results and service delivery. Committees, in my view, are supposed to be engaged on issues that are generally not expected or for whom we do not have statutory institutions or organs to deal with.
“But we have seen that some committees have become a hybrid, accountability processes are opaque and they are not held accountable under the traditional process.
“They have been, more or less, usurping roles of traditional government institutions. So, it is not out of place to see that they have gulped so much money and returned so little in terms of service delivery,” he observed.
A development economist and public affairs expert, Aliyu Ilias, asserted that if given the opportunity, existing ministries, departments, and agencies might carry out some committee duties.
Ilias said, “There are no committees that a director in a ministry cannot spearhead. That is why we have special duties.
“You recall that the National Social Investment Programme was eventually transferred to the humanitarian ministry.
“These monies are uncalled for because you cannot put your hand to what they are doing exactly and they are meant to last for some time. So, it is better to pick from the ministries, departments and agencies.”
However, a foundation member of the All Progressives Congress, Osita Okechukwu, argued that the committees were essential ingredients of policy formulation.
“We cannot formulate policies in the marketplace. So, it is always more beneficial to society when the committees are primarily made up of experts in that area.
“That is why it becomes important to set up committees so that the policy in question will be reviewed upside down until the government says ‘this is the best model or strategy that we should use to pursue a given policy to achieve a given result’.
“It is as they say in the parliamentary language that most results are not achieved in the general house, but at the committee levels because a few good heads can bring up good ideas and present them to the general house,” Okechuwu said.
At the time of filing this report, the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation could not be reached.
