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Prominent Igbo leaders have warned against any move to implement anything outside recommendations of the Stephen Oronsaye report on Restructuring and Rationalization of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies.
They reminded the implementation committee that they were only given mandate to implement the white paper and not to add or subtract, warning that any attempt to doctor the report would not achieve the desired objective.
DAILY POST recalls that former President Goodluck Jonathan had set up a commission to advise government on restructuring and rationalization of Federal Government parastatsls, commission and agencies with the objective of determining areas of overlap and duplication of functions, among others.
President Bola Tinubu’s administration had on Monday said it resolved to implement the Oronsaye report which called for a leaner government by merging some agencies and scrapping some others.
In the committee’s recommendation, some agencies under the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Technology were recommended to be merged but the Projects Development Institute, PRODA, Enugu, was recommended to stand alone.
However, there are claims that some top government functionaries want to merge PRODA with other agencies contrary to the committee’s recommendation.
Reacting to the alleged move to doctor the recommendation of the committee on PRODA, an Igbo leader and former presidential candidate of United Nigeria Peoples Party, UNPP, Chief Chekwas Okorie told journalists on Tuesday that such action would be counter productive.
Okorie advised that the right thing should be done.
He insisted that the recommendations should be implemented to the letter, adding that since inception PRODA has not been given the desired attention.
The Igbo leader posited that “if given the necessary support, PRODA will be in the interest of the country, as it will take the nation’s technological advancement to the next level.”
Okorie advised the implementing committee not to bow to any pressure to doctor the document, pointing out that PRODA is an agency that deserves adequate attention.
Also reacting, a former spokesman of apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Chuks Ibegbu said though the implementation was long overdue, nobody should politicize it by merging PRODA with any other agency.
“PRODA is an iconic agency with high prospects; what it needs is more of attention from the government,” he said.
Similarly, the founder of Voice from the East, Comrade Kindness Jonah warned against the merging of PRODA with another agency, saying the recommendation of the committee was that PRODA should be on its own.
He said though PRODA has not been given the attention it deserved, it remained the pride of the Igbos “as it was set up immediately after the war to preserve some of the scientific innovations of the Igbos during the Biafra war.”