You Have Turned Nigeria To A Laughing Stock, Appoint New AGF Now – CSOs To Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari has been asked to, without further hesitation, appoint a substantive Accountant General of the Federation (AGF).

Naija News reports that the coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) made the call during a conversation with newsmen in Abuja on Wednesday, saying that the inaction of the incumbent government since the suspension of the erstwhile AGF, Ahmed Idris, has turned the country into a laughing stock among its equals.

Speaking on behalf of the groups, President, Civil Society Groups for Good Governance (CSGGG), Comrade Ogakwu Dominic Ogakwu said they are troubled with the discordant issues arising from the vacant office of the AGF.

Ogakwu said the group has perceived as an insult to the public service the dilly-dallying on the appointment of the new overseer for the paramount office following the suspension of the embattled former holder of the position.

The CSGGG President 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 to ensure the conduct of rule of law and safeguard the provisions contained in the Nigerian constitution.

Naija News reports that 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.

Speaking further, Ogakwu said the group’s major concern was 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 channelling their creative energies towards managing the nation’s finances better, 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 benefitted 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 bedevilling her.”

To arrest the untoward development and set the Nation’s public Service back on the right trajectory, CSGGG asked President 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 Nigeria’s public service system, to immediately do the needful and save the nation from further embarrassment.