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State: Bayelsa State

Policy Problem:

In Bayelsa State, two major challenges affect governance. First, legislative information from the State House of Assembly is not easily accessible to citizens in riverine and rural communities, especially youth. Bills, motions and committee reports are not published in real-time or in simple Ijaw and English language. Second, Primary Health Care delivery in riverine wards suffers from poor health workforce data, untracked Community Health Workers, and lack of transparent profiling and deployment during flood emergencies and outreach programs.

Proposed Policy:

I propose the Bayelsa State Open Legislative Data and Community Health Accountability Law.

The law will provide for:

1. Mandatory publication of all bills, motions, votes and committee reports by the Bayelsa State House of Assembly on an open portal within 48 hours, with simplified civic briefs translated into Ijaw and English for radio and social media dissemination.

2. Creation of a Youth Legislative Research Desk in the Assembly with 2 youth researchers per constituency to bridge the gap between the Assembly and citizens and identify legislative data gaps.

3. Establishment of a Bayelsa State PHC and Community Health Workforce Data Bank with electronic profiling, verification and e-attendance for all CHWs and health program beneficiaries using digital tools to eliminate duplication and ghost names.

4. A provision for flood emergency health accountability, requiring transparent deployment and tracking of health workers and relief health services in riverine communities during flooding.

Expected Impact:

This will increase legislative transparency and youth participation in Bayelsa, improve trust in government, ensure judicious use of public funds for health programs, and guarantee that riverine communities have verifiable and accountable PHC services especially during emergencies.

This idea is informed by my experience as a former MSH Field Officer in Batagarawa LGA, Katsina State, where I ensured quality electronic attendance tracking and CHW profiling, and by my understanding of access challenges in riverine Bayelsa as an Ijaw son.

I believe Oyo State needs an Open Legislature and Citizen Engagement Policy.

Many citizens, particularly youth and grassroots communities in places like Ibarapa East, are disconnected from the Oyo State House of Assembly because legislative information is too technical and not easily accessible.

The policy would ensure major bills and motions are simplified into plain English and Yoruba, create quarterly town-halls between legislators and citizens across the three senatorial districts, and establish an accessible legislative information hub — both online and offline — where citizens can track bills, motions, and public hearings.

Importantly, the project will be tailored as a 'Catch Them Young" initiative, to be carried out at the secondary school level, introducing students early to legislative processes, civic responsibilities, and democratic participation.

This will foster greater participation, accountability, and trust while building an informed next generation of citizens.

Nigeria is at a fiscal crossroads. Debt servicing consumes a growing share of revenue, and the recurrent expenditure bill leaves little for roads, power, schools, and hospitals. The question is whether the National Assembly will lead the reduction in the cost of governance or continue to preside over its growth.

A bureaucracy that only grows

The Oronsaye Report found 541 federal parastatals, commissions, and agencies. It recommended reducing the number of statutory agencies from 263 to 161, with 38 abolished, 52 merged, and 14 reverted to departments within ministries. The Federal Executive Council approved full implementation of the report on February 26, 2024.

Implementation has nonetheless stalled. AERE's Dele Oye says the number of federal agencies has risen to over 900. That is an advocacy estimate rather than an official count, and the National Assembly should ask the Executive to publish an authoritative register as part of the audit.

On cost, the original projection is firmer than the annual figure. The committee's projected savings of over ₦862 billion between 2012 and 2015 included ₦124.8 billion from agencies proposed for abolition and ₦100.6 billion from agencies proposed for merger. AERE argues that the proliferation of over 900 MDAs now imposes over ₦862 billion in costs on the economy. Whatever the precise current figure, the direction is clear: duplication is costing the nation heavily.

When regulators become revenue collectors

A second problem is quieter but just as costly. Many agencies have drifted from their regulatory mandates and become revenue-generating entities. By one account, ₦658 billion was deducted as "cost of collection" by government agencies in the first half of 2025 alone. Deductions by agencies such as FIRS, the Customs Service, and NUPRC are said to exceed the total allocations received by several states.

The incentive is perverse. An agency that keeps a percentage of what it collects is rewarded for collecting more, not for regulating well. The burden falls on the private sector through layered levies, and the Consolidated Revenue Fund is drained before the money reaches the national treasury. Some agencies even defy legislative summonses, undermining this House's oversight role.

What the National Assembly should do

1. Halt the creation of new MDAs. Before reducing the size of government, stop adding to it.
2. Fully implement the Oronsaye Report. Selective implementation has produced no results. Mergers, abolitions, and subsumptions should proceed on a defined timeline with clear accountability.
3. Conduct a 60-day forensic audit. The Committees on Public Accounts, Finance, and Legislative Compliance should jointly examine every federal MDA for overlapping mandates and statutory relevance.
4. Tie capital funding to transition plans. The Budget Office of the Federation should suspend capital allocations to any agency recommended for dissolution or merger until it submits a structural transition plan.
5. Cap "cost of collection" and enforce full remittance. The Establishment Acts of revenue-generating agencies should be reviewed to set strict limits on deductions and require 100% remittance of operating surpluses.

Addressing the legitimate concerns

Responsible reform must take the risks seriously. Job losses have been a recurring reason previous administrations halted implementation, and labour and civil society have resisted the report on those grounds. These concerns should be answered through design, not by abandoning reform.

1. Protect people, not positions. Redeploy and retrain staff of merged or abolished agencies first, with fair, promptly paid severance or retirement packages where redeployment is not possible.
2. Sequence the transition. Essential regulatory functions should move to successor bodies before any agency closes.
3. Distinguish duplication from distinct functions. The audit should protect bodies with real constitutional or regulatory purposes while removing overlap.
4. Measure the savings. Publish targets and track recurring savings relative to capital reinvestment so the public can see the dividend.

One caution for the debate: critics note that merely merging organisations under an umbrella name, while leaving bloated agencies intact, defeats the purpose of the report. The audit should test whether mergers actually reduce headcount and overhead, rather than merely renaming agencies.

The choice before the House

Rationalising MDAs, capping arbitrary deductions, and enforcing oversight are not austerity for its own sake. It directs scarce resources toward development priorities instead of self-preservation. The recommendations have been on the table since 2012, and the fiscal case is stronger than ever. What remains is the will to act.

This is a call to action to the lawmakers in the National Assembly: they should act now.

Sources and references

Oronsaye White Paper (government’s official response to the report): PolicyVault PDF | Policy page

900+ agencies and "₦862bn annually" claim (AERE / Dele Oye, July 2026): ThisDay | Prime Business Africa

₦862bn projected savings (2012–2015) and its breakdown: Arise News, Twelve Highlights of the Stephen Oronsaye Report

541 agencies; 38 abolished, 52 merged, 14 reverted: The Guardian, Oronsaye Report: Implementation and cost of governance challenge

FEC approval (Feb 2024) and implementation committee: PLAC

Job-loss concerns: Blueprint, Before implementing the Oronsaye report

I want to be clear about where I stand on the Foreign Aid Regulation, Transparency and Inclusion Bill, 2026 (SB1034), sponsored by Senator Ibrahim Dankwambo. I strongly support the transparency half of this bill. I do not support the parts that put civil society organisations under a compulsory registration and sanctions regime, because that machinery can be weaponised to restrict civic space.

What is worth keeping. The bill would make donor funding to government visible: a national database of aid inflows, integration into the national budget, and public disclosure of sources, project details and outcomes. That is the accountability citizens have been asking for. Let us keep it and strengthen it.

What worries me. The same bill makes registration of "all foreign aid and donor-funded projects" compulsory and attaches sanctions for non-registration. Applied to NGOs and advocacy groups, that is not transparency, it is a licence to operate that the government of the day can grant, delay or revoke. We have seen how "foreign funding" rules elsewhere become a tool to harass human rights defenders, journalists and election observers. A bill that carries "inclusion" in its title should not end up shrinking the civic space it claims to protect.

My proposal is to split the two ideas cleanly:

• Keep mandatory disclosure of aid flows: who funded what, how much, and to which agency or project, in a public registry.
• Drop any regime that makes a CSO's legal existence or right to operate depend on registering its foreign funding.
• Tie sanctions only to the real offences the bill already lists, namely diversion, misuse and false disclosure, not to the mere fact of receiving foreign support.
• Add an explicit safeguard clause protecting freedom of association and lawful advocacy.

The bill passed second reading and is now with the Senate Committees on National Planning (lead), Finance and Foreign Affairs, with a public hearing due. This is the window to get it right. Read it here: Foreign Aid Regulation, Transparency and Inclusion Bill, 2026.

If you believe we can have transparency without a clampdown on civil society, like this idea and share it so the committee hears it before the report is written.