A group, National Inter-Religious/Inter-Tribal Alliance for Peace, Unity and Development, has called on the federal government to tamper justice with mercy and appoint Alhaji Muhammed Kyari Dikwa PhD, Mni as the next Auditor General of the Federation.
In a statement after its emergency meeting in Abuja yesterday, the group’s National Patron, General Lawrence Anebi Onoja (rtd), a former military administrator of former Katsina and Plateau states, requested President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint Dikwa as the Auditor General of the Federation. He said the position became vacant since September 7, 2022, following the retirement of Mr. Adolphus Aghughu.
In his welcome address at the meeting, General Onoja said the office is sensitive, adding that Nigeria’s Audit House cannot continue to be at the mercy of quacks but deserves capable hands like Muhammed Kyari Dikwa. He said Dikwa is a chartered accountant and eminently qualified to head the agency.
He said for a mere director that doesn’t have the requisite professional knowledge to continue to pilot the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation, is not a welcome development, since OAuGF is seen by many Nigerians as the engine house of the country with the mandate to ensure transparency across every government bodies in Nigeria.
General Onoja, who is also a former Chief Principal Staff Secretary to late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, described Muhammed Kyari Dikwa as a technocrat with versatile knowledge, experience and leadership prowess that when appointed as Auditor General of the Federation will definitely turn the fortunes of the organisation around for good.
He therefore urged President Buhari to go for the best hand to preside over the affairs of the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation.
Lending support to the clarion call, a renowned economist, Professor Iruka Okoro Charles, described the endorsement of Muhammed Kyari Dikwa as not only timely but, one of the best of 2022. He therefore urged Mr President to immediately by pass protocol and appoint Dikwa as Auditor General.
Okoro stated that as an academic, he has over the last one decade and half, been using intellectual properties of Dikwa to his students, adding that going by the records of those that had served as Auditor General of the Federation, justice, fairness and equity demands that a northerner be appointed as Auditor General of the Federation to balance the equation since the two immediate past Auditor Generals, Mr. Ayine and Adolphus Aghughu, were southerners.
He also call on the leadership of the National Assembly and Federal Executive Council to quickly pass the bill for the conversion of Auditor General of the Federation office into a full fledged commission in order to give free hand to Mr. President to appoint a competent hand from outside the organisation without the interference of Federal Civil Service Commission and Office of the Head of Civil Service.
