In August 2015, a bill for the establishment of a National Agency for Foreign Assistance (NAFFA) was sponsored in the House of Representatives by Hon. Gideon Lucas Gwani (PDP – Kaura Federal Constituency, Kaduna State). The bill, which passed second reading in January 2016 and is now at the committee stage seeks to establish an agency that will provide foreign development assistance to countries in need such as those severely weakened by consecutive failed harvests, extreme poverty, refugees, etc. particularly fellow African countries.

This is a laudable idea and more than just being altruistic, such development assistance boosts Nigeria’s image in those countries and is an important tool of diplomacy.

However, it is not known if Hon. Gwani knows that there already exists a department of government that carries out a very similar mission to the one he is proposing for NAFFA: The Directorate of Technical Aids Corp, under the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The DTAC was established in 1987 to share our expertise and know-how with African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, promoting assistance based on the assessed and perceived needs of the recipient countries and promoting cooperation and understanding between the two countries.

The scheme, which takes volunteers to those countries on 2-year periods, has sent about 3500 volunteers to countries such as Belize, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Bhutan, Cape Verde, Mozambique, etc. in fields such as engineering, medical sciences, agriculture, education, etc. It got a funding of N2.5billion last year an N3.2billion is being proposed as its funding for this year.

This raises the question: why then is a new agency needed to perform the very tasks that an existing directorate has been doing for 30 years and excellently too? If there is need for the government to provide development assistance to countries recovering from disasters, why not ask the DTAC to expand its objectives?

A long-standing problem in Nigeria is the bloated size of the government with over 600 agencies, many of which are not needed and constitute a drain on public finances. It was for this reason that the Oronsaye panel was constituted in 2011 and submitted its report in 2012, recommending the scrapping of many agencies and the merger of others.

Although the report is yet to be implemented, it will be foolhardy to continue to expand the government, especially when unneeded such as in this case.

The best thing that can happen to this bill is for it to fail at the committee stage.

Editor