SERAP urges Buhari to withdraw board appointments

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to withdraw the list of appointments to the boards of agencies and parastatals that generated controversy.

In a statement by its deputy director, Timothy Adewale, the organisation insisted that the appointment must be reversed in order to remove a clear and recognizable danger to the integrity of these bodies.

SERAP urged the government to allow the civil service systems to carry out the appointments, in strict conformity with established rules and Nigeria’s international anticorruption obligations and commitments.

It said “appointing at least eight dead people as board members would seem to suggest that the 1,467 appointments approved by President Buhari were unscreened for competence, merit, equity, aptitude and conflicts of interest.”

President Buhari had on Friday last week approved the constitution of the governing boards of agencies and parastatals, appointing 209 chairmen and 1258 members to fill the board positions.

However, several reports said at least eight members on the list have since passed away. One of such appointee, Rev. Christopher Utov appointed as a Member of Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research was said to have passed away on March 17, 2017.

“The president also appointed Chief Donald Ugbaja as a member of the Consumer Protection Council (CPC). Chief Ugbaja, a former DIG of the Nigerian Police, died on November 29, 2017. Another person, Senator Francis Okpozo, was appointed as chairman of the Nigerian Press Council. But Okpozo, a senator in the Second Republic, died on December 16, 2016,” the statement said.

“Going ahead with these appointments would neither advance due process nor Buhari’s oft-expressed commitment to prevent and combat corruption. It would create a lack of trust and confidence among the general public.

“Taking partisan politics out of the appointments to boards of agencies and parastatals is one surest way for Buhari to show that his government is truly one of change that would do things differently from successive governments that apparently handed outboard appointments to reward party members, supporters, and cronies.

“Withdrawing the appointments and directing and allowing the civil service systems to follow due process to reappoint chairpersons and members to the boards of these agencies and parastatals would bring the government’s practices and operations into conformity with Nigeria’s international anti-corruption obligations, particularly the UN Convention against Corruption. Nigeria has ratified the convention,” SERAP said.