Veteran broadcaster and Arise News anchor, Reuben Abati, has called on the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs Didi Esther Walson-Jack, to resign over her admission that due diligence was not adequately carried out in the process that led to the recognition of the disputed Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC).
Naijaonpoint reports that Abati made the call during Thursday’s edition of The Morning Show on Arise Television while reacting to the ongoing House of Representatives investigation into the activities of the purported agency.
The former presidential spokesman argued that the revelation exposed serious lapses within the Federal Civil Service and warranted a broader review of government procedures.
Abati said Walson-Jack’s acknowledgment of procedural failures amounted to self-indictment and should attract personal responsibility.
He said, “The question of self-indictment and her admission of guilt and lack of diligence should be properly looked into because in other countries of the world, this admission will have been followed with a letter of resignation.
“This is because what the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation has just done is to say that her department has failed the country in the discharge of the professional responsibility of that office.”
The broadcaster questioned how officials could assign staff to the self-acclaimed Director-General of the PFIPC without first verifying the legal basis for the agency’s existence.
“They gave the self-acclaimed Director-General of the PFIPC, Adeyemi Adeniyi, staff without even establishing the authenticity of the Establishment Act, making him the Director General of that ghost agency,” Abati said.
He urged investigators to determine whether similar irregularities existed elsewhere in the public service.
Abati further stated, “The question to ask is: How many other agencies of government, whether presidential or statutory, have been created and have been given staff, given offices, put in the budget on the value and strength of fake documents?”
Abati described the development as damaging to Nigeria’s image and called for a comprehensive audit of government agencies to establish the extent of the alleged lapses.
“So the investigation should be how far deeper has this gone? Because it’s an embarrassment to the Nigerian government. It’s a ridicule very clearly of how the Nigerian government is run. So resignation will be a personal responsibility of Mrs Wilson Jack,” he added.
