SGF Suspension: CSOs Hail Buhari, Say Anti-corruption War Rejuvenated

Sunday Okobi

The Coalition of Civil Societies and Media Executives for Good Governance (COCMEGG) yesterday hailed President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption crusade, saying it has been rejuvenated following the sack of Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal.

The group said his removal has been applauded from far and wide, adding that such action has rekindled the hopes of Nigerians on President Buhari’s resolve to salvage Nigeria from the clutches of corrupt public officials in high places.

In a statement made available to journalists yesterday by the anti-corruption pressure-group which was jointly signed by Omoba Kenneth Aigbegbele and Comrade James Okoronkwo, President and Secretary respectively, the group alleged that Lawal almost jeopardised President Buhari’s anti-graft war through his corrupt tendencies within the period he was in office, lauding the president for shoving him out of office.

Meanwhile, the group stated that “Nigerians were particularly pained with the unceremonious removal from office of the Director-General of National Pension Commission (PENCOM), Mrs. Chinelo Anohu-Amazu whose tenure witnessed an unprecedented revival of the ailing pension industry whose pension fund asset base  was hitherto at N2.5 trillion but was grown to N6.5 trillion in less than four years in office.”

The erstwhile DG, according to the group, has renewed the confidence of public sector workers and the investing public thereby growing the economy at a period Nigerians are groaning with economic recession.

Furthermore, the group remarked that the transparent leadership of Anohu-Amazu has made the pension industry, the darling of investors in Nigeria by raising the standard and breaking barriers from zero level when the industry started to an enviable height worth trillions of naira in capital/asset base due to the prudent and good governance practice of the management.

In addition, the contributing pension scheme which the Pencom DG innovated facilitated the development of the corporate bond market as well as grew the Nigerian mortgage refinancing company to N50 billion.

Anohu-Amazu, according to the group, also increased corporate governance in companies where pension funds have been invested.

The group expressed regret that she was ill-treated because of her gender and origin being from the marginalised South-east geopolitical zone, appealing to President Buhari to immediately reinstate her as her patriotic disposition to the president’s anti-corruption may have rankled the cabal who recently announced her removal from office without following due process.

Finally, the group noted that the purported removal of Anohu-Amazu as the Director General of PENCOM is mired in illegality and controversy as according to them, no letter has been transmitted to her. It stated that the recent sack of the heads of MDAs/Parastatals is illegal and therefore cannot stand “because the author of the bizarre carried out the clandestine act without the blessing of the president.