The Federal Government has been called upon to hasten the process of appointing a new Accountant General of the Federation (AGF).
This call was made by a coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs).
While addressing journalists on behalf of the coalition on Wednesday in Abuja, President of the Civil Society Groups for Good Governance (CSGGG) Comrade Ogakwu Dominic Ogakwu said the group was concerned about the discordant issues arising from the vacant office of the AGF.
He added that since the suspension of the former AGF, Ahmed Idris, the government had been otherwise wasting time in appointing a new overseer for the paramount office. A development, which according to him is a mockery of the public service and thus turning Nigeria into a laughing stock in the league of nations.
Ogakwu said: “This press conference has become imperative in the face of the divergent opinions and conflicting conspiracy theories, shrouding the delay in the appointment of a new substantive Accountant-General of the Federation – particularly because of the critical role of the Accountant-General in a nation at a crossroads like ours, with myriads of crippling challenges, paramount among them being the depleting and almost empty national treasury.”
He said the call was necessitated in order to ensure the conduct of rule of law and safeguard the provisions as contained in the Nigerian constitution.
The group argued that the reluctance of the Head of Service to interpret this paragraph within context, could be construed as a deliberate violation of extant regulations of the federal republic of Nigeria.
“Our major concern here is that, this inaction, be it by commission or omission, has stirred the hornets’ nest, with attendant infighting and rift tearing treasury staff apart, public employees who should otherwise be channeling their creative energies towards managing the nation’s finances better, so as to get Nigeria out of the woods and give Nigerians a breath of life!
“Even more curious is the fact that the current Head of Service benefitted from the rule in question, hence Nigerians now wonder, and for good reason, whether the rule which benefited some public stewards doesn’t apply to others? After all, what is good for the goose is good for the gander?
“Besides, CSGGG vehemently believes that apart from the fact that the most senior director is being denied the entitlements due him or her for his or her diligent service to our fatherland, it is also true that our nation is mindlessly being robbed of the wealth of experience which that individual has garnered over the years, in readiness to bail the nation out of the current financial challenges bedeviling her.
“Therefore, to arrest this untoward development and set the Nation’s public Service back on the right trajectory, CSGGG hereby calls on President Muhammadu Buhari, the Head of Service of the federation, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and all those who are entrusted with the sanctity of our public service system, to immediately do the needful and put an end to this unholy trend of making a mockery of our public service and turning Nigeria into a laughing stock in the league of nations,” it said.