The Conference of Civil Society of Nigeria (CCSN) has called on stakeholders not to interfere in the appointment of the Clerk of National Assembly.
Addressing a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday, Comrade Adams Otakwu, leader of the group, said the process should be allowed to take its “well established course.”
He said despite priding herself as the giant of Africa, Nigeria has continued to experience “lawlessness and brinkmanship orchestrated by political elites in their unconscionable quests to grab, grasp and manipulate bureaucratic institutions.”
Otakwu said, “Nigeria is today grappling with many issues because rather than allow bureaucracy to operate within the armbits of their statutory functions and powers, these critical organs of governance have been subjugated and tied to the apron strings of the high and mighty, whose whims and caprices they are compelled to fulfill at the expense of overriding National interest.”
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He said the Civil Society is keenly watching recent developments in the National Assembly, and has observed serious power play with the ongoing succession of the Clerk to the National Assembly.
He explained that it is in this regard that we implore all those concerned to eschew their parochial and primordial considerations and allow the rules guiding the process to take their well-established course.
“We need not be reminded that the National Assembly Service Commission is statutorily empowered to marshal the staff and superintendent the hiring and firing of all the National Legislative bureaucracy, inclusive of the Clerk to the National Assembly.
“This status quo ante should and must be maintained no matter whose ox is gored. The political elites must unlearn their unacceptable habits of bending the rules to achieve any diabolical designs. They must learn to play by the rules.”
