Lawmakers advise Buhari against tenure extension for Auditor General

By Christiana Ekpa

Some members of the House of Representatives have advised President Muhammadu Buhari not to extend the tenure of the outgoing Auditor General of the Federation, Anthony Mkpe Ayine.
The lawmakers, Peoples Daily reliably gathered will be sponsoring a motion on the floor of the House today to compel the President to halt the alleged plans to allow the AuGF continue in office after attaining retirement age.
One of the legislators co-sponsoring the motion told our correspondent in confidence that they want to put an end to the practice of retaining civil servants due for retirement.
He said their motion will, amongst other things, be seeking for “the president to name an acting AuGF to avoid any vacuum as according to them, ‘the office is too sensitive to be left without a thorough bred professional within the system”.
He said “We have read reports of attempts to extend the service of the current Auditor General of the Federation with utmost reservations and have resolved to come up with a motion to advise Mr. President not to fall into this trap of truncating the career progression of civil servants.
“We shall be tabling our motion on the floor of the House to ask the President not to replicate what he has done with the Service Chiefs to the office of Auditor General of the Federation.
“The extension of service of public servants due for retirement is anathema to the career progress of other civil servants. We understand there are many directors and we expect that the President would look at their records and appoint the most qualified and perhaps senior to succeed the outgoing.”
Attempts to get the chairman of the House Committee on Public Accounts, Hon. Oluwole Oke, to comment on the development was unsuccessful as messages sent to him were not reciprocated.
Ayeni, who was born on October 25, 1960, was appointed to the position on January 12, 2017 and will attain the mandatory retirement age of 60 on October 25, 2020, when he is expected to pull out from the civil service.