ON Friday, April 19, 2024, some X users shared footage of a sitting of the Federal Executive Council with the claim that the Federal Government of Nigeria has scrapped some parastatals and agencies alike.
Dino Melaye, a former federal lawmaker at the Nigerian Senate, shared the six minutes, 18 seconds footage on X alongside a claim that FG has scrapped the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), and the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA).
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The footage showed Hadiza Usman, the special assistant to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on policy coordination reading out from a paper. Part of the audio transcribed below read:
One of the key areas as the honourable minister has mentioned is the fact that our administration have taken very bold steps towards the implementation on the aspect of the Oronsaye panel report which seeks to mergers and subsuming, scrapping and relocation of parastatals, agencies, and commissions of federal government in line with the need to reduce the cost of governance and ensure that we streamline efficiency by the governance value chains. We would go through the list of agencies that have been scrapped and their functions moved to ministries and agencies and those merged and those subsumed.
Similarly, the caption on his X post, shared alongside the footage, read:
FG Scraps FRCN, ICPC, NCDC, NCC, NTA, Several Others. Finally.
The post has gained a traction of over 245,000 views, with 1,500 likes and about 500 reposts.
Also, an online blog, Instablog9ja, which has over 3.9 million followers on X, shared the post same day from Dino Melaye’s X profile and it has garnered over 1.1 million views, with more than 2,400 reposts, over 9,000 likes and over 1,400 bookmarks.
CLAIM
The Federal Government has scrapped FRCN, ICPC, NCDC, and other parastatals and agencies.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is MISLEADING!
On February 27, 2024, media platforms including Premium Times reported that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the implementation of the recommendations of the Steve Oronsaye panel on the restructuring and rationalisation of federal agencies, parastatals and commissions which involve the merging, subsuming and scrapping of agencies with similar functions.

The Premium Times report also contained the full list of agencies to be scrapped, merged, relocated and subsumed, including those listed in the footage.
Only two agencies are to be scrapped, namely: Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) and  National Senior Secondary Education Commission (NSSEC) while 15 agencies are to be merged, according to the ‘Oronsaye Report.‘
One of the agencies Melaye claimed has been scrapped is the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN).
However, the FRCN is to be merged with the Voice of Nigeria (VON), according to the ‘Oronsaye Report‘ while nine agencies are to be subsumed and four agencies to be relocated. The merger is yet to be implemented by the Nigerian government as of today.
Also, the video shared by Melaye dates back to Monday, 26 February 2024 as published by Premium Times, when the sitting of the Federal Executive Council took place; thus, it is not recent.
This shows that the decision has been taken several weeks ago, though the implementation committee has been inaugurated. Their task is expected to last for a period of twelve weeks before the official merger is announced, among others.
THE VERDICT
The claim that the Federal Government has scrapped FRCN, ICPC, NCDC, and other parastatals and agencies is FALSE; findings show that only PTAD and NSSEC are to be scrapped, according to the Oronsaye Report while others are yet to be merged or subsumed as announced by the Nigerian government in February 2024.
Seasoned fact-checker and researcher Fatimah Quadri has written numerous fact-checks, explainers, and media literacy pieces for The FactCheckHub in an effort to combat information disorder. She can be reached at sunmibola_q on X or [email protected].