By Raphael Ekpang
A civil society organisation, Coalition of Civil Society and Media Executives for Good Governance in Nigeria {COCMEGG}has added it voice in the ongoing tenure elongation’s brouhaha currently rocking the Ministry of Interior, saying that Interior Minister has the right to advice President Muhammadu Buhari on what to do under his ministry.
In a statement signed by the president of COCMEGG, Omoba Kenneth Aigbegbele and made available to Core Reporters, the group said, “The attention of the Coalition of Civil Societies and Media Executives for Good Governance in Nigeria (COCMEGG) has been drawn to what can best be described as orchestrated headlines, masquerading as real stories, as well as social media stories, sponsored by ostensibly disgruntled elements with the headline, “Like the Military Chiefs, FG Plans ‘2nd’ Tenure Elongation for Immigration, Prisons, Civil Defence Bosses.”
COCMEGG, as a Coalition that champions and propagates transparency, accountability and good governance regime in Nigeria over the years, views these allegations as malicious story lines, smear campaign well intended to cast aspersions on the hard earned reputation of the Chief Executive Officers of the para-military agencies under the Ministry of Interior: the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) and the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCS).
In view of the foregoing, COCMEGG affirms that all the paramilitary agencies’ Chief Executives under the ministry have inalienable rights to aspire to any office of their choice and/or to seek for renewal of their present positions if they so please and eventually has been approved by the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
COCMEGG is therefore constrained to issue this statement in order to put the records straight and let the general public be aware of the deeply concealed nefarious activities by these agent-provocateurs and mischief makers who are hell-bent on denigrating and disparaging Ogbeni Rauf Adegbeshola’s proactive governance style presently taking place at the Ministry:
COCMEGG insisted that as long as the Chief Executives of the various parastatals under mention have performed creditably well therefore carving a niche for themselves in their various capacities and having been endorsed by the Honourable Minister of Interior for a job well done, they can be re-appointed or have their tenure elongated for the growth and development of the Ministry and Nigeria in general.
The statement read in parts, “That the Chief Executive Officers have not yet exceeded their mandatory retirement ages and years of service as outlined in the said story, under the Ministry of Interior. For instance, the Commandant-General of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps is yet to attain the mandatory 35 years in service and has also not reached 60 years of age, as stipulated by the extant public service rules. And, as such, has the right, like other CEOs, to aspire to be re-appointed or his tenure elongated to continue to meritorious serve the nation.
“The willful and carefully orchestrated campaign on the social media especially on the “metrowatchonline.com”platform is unfortunate and mischievously carved out against the management of the agencies mentioned under the Ministry. This sad story, COCMEGG found out, is the handiwork of spurious individuals, who have fabricated the fallacy orchestrated in order to retrogressively change the proactive milestones presently taking place at the various agencies. Despite these ill-intended publications, COCMEGG has however been assured that the various organs will continue to work assiduously with sister agencies to nip in the bud the security challenges across the country. With this assurance, COCMEGG prevails on these elements to leave the Ministry of Interior alone to face its constitutiona