MR Bola Ahmed Tinubu allocated N2.035 billion to little-known Citizenship and Leadership Centre in the 2024 budget. Analysts say the parastatal is offering little value and does not deserve government allocations from people’s taxes.

Seventeen Nigerians sampled by Economy Post confessed that they did not know that there was ever a government parastatal known as Citizenship and Leadership Centre, wondering why the parastatal still receives annual government allocations.

In the 2024 budget, the government parastatal got N2.035 billion allocation and awarded several contracts that had little to do with its name, including the purchase of one unit of 135KVA generating set for N20.198 million and one vehicle for N35 million.

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Citizenship and Leadership Centre says on its website that it “is principally a human development outfit established for the training and moulding of Nigeria citizenry to become responsible and respectable citizens and leaders.”

It says that its manadate is “to establish Man O’War Clubs and Commands and formulate policy guidelines for running the Clubs and Commands.” It runs an academy and says that it is “providing a sustainable framework for citizenship and leadership training and value re-orientation.”

Budget breakdown
The parastatal is spending N41.7 million to fuel its generators and vehicles, including N55 million on miscellanous expenses such as refreshments, honorarium, medicals, welfare and monitoring activities.

It is also spending N72.5 million on repairs and N1.46 billion on personnel.

A rudderless government parastatal

However, it is “a rudderless government entity,” according to analysts, who called on Mr Tinubu to cut the waste and scrap the parastatal, or merge it with another government entity.

Apart from running an academy, with only few Nigerians participating, Economy Post found that the parastatal is neither providing citizenship education to the majority of Nigerians nor is it training Nigerians on leadership values, which the centre should be doing.

Analysts say “it is ridiculous” that the parastal prides itself on establishing “man o’war clubs and commands” at a point when the nation desperately needs proper citizenship education and leadership values.

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“It is just another government entity that takes money every year and offers little or nothing,” said Delta State-based community development expert, Dr Gilbert Atufe.

“I have not even heard about them despite working in the non-governmental organisation space and interfacing with the government for over 25 years now. And to think of man ‘o wars now with the curreny state of the country is just ridiculous.”

A lawyer, Mr Muhammad Muhammad, knocked Mr Bola Tinubu’s administration for failing to fulfil his promise of merging government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) in line with the Orosanye Report.

“Where is Tinubu’s promise to merge or weed out parastatals like that? The current government has not shown that it is desirous of cutting wastes. So, several government entities like Citizenship and Leadership Centre will continue to exist for the compensation of political stooges,” he said.

The Orosanye Report

In 2013, former President Goodluck Jonathan appointed Mr Stephen Oronsaye, a former head of the civil service of the federation, to head a committee that would streamline government MDAs. Its Secretary was Mr Umar A. Mohammed.

The committee concluded its work and produced a “White Paper on the Report of the Presidential Committee on Restructuring and Rationalization of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies” in March 2014.

The committee made several recommendations, including “the merger of NEMA and the National Refugees Government into one agency to be known as the National recommendation.”

The Orosanye Report also recommended that this parastatal be rejigged.

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“The Committee recommends that the curriculum of the Citizenship and Leadership be overhauled to address the issues of youth unemployment, loss of cultural and moral values and dearth of entrepreneurship and leadership skills among the youth.”

This shows that the Orosanye Report knew that the mandate of Citizenship and Leadership Centre was wrongly conceived, making it imposible to fulfil its purpose.

“It is just irrelevant and there are many departments, agencies and parastatals of the government like that. We can’t keep telling the citizens to endure when we are living large as government officials,” Muhammad noted.