News Release
September 9, 2018
Civil society organization trio of Citizens Watch Advocacy Initiative (CIWA), Transparency Centre Network (TCN) and Workers Rights Protection Network (WORP) have descended heavily on Citizens Advocacy for Social and Economic Rights (CASER) for writing frivolous, self-serving, time wasting and ill-motivated petitions to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and the Ministry of Interior against the management of the Federal Fire service (FFS) and some top government officials in President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
A tease statement written and signed by the Executive Secretary of CIWA, Omoba Kenneth Aigbegbele, National Convener TCN, Com. Umar Faruk and National Coordinator of WORP, Com. Inuwa Sule described the CASER’s petitions as malicious, wicked, defamatory and evil aimed at resolving grievances, settling old scores and seeking revenge on perceived enemies because the petition lacked merit and should be subsequently dismissed, discountenanced and disregarded by not only the offices sent to but by well meaning Nigerians.
The trio maintained that the issue orchestrated by CASER is self-serving as the management under Engr. Joseph Garba Anebi have turned around the comatose state of infrastructural development of the Federal Fire Service (FFS) into one of the best in Africa due to its state of the art equipment, enhanced human capacity development and the repositioning of the entire organization to meet with best global practice and as one to be proud of by Nigerians for its transparency, accountability and change management.
As champions and advocate of transparency, accountability and good governance in public service, the said petition should be jettisoned and disregarded forthwith. They are politically motivated with the intent to pull down the management and cause confusion in the organization. The said petitioner is miffed that the present Comptroller General’s profile continued to rise and the organization have become the cynosure of all eyes and envy due to the transformational philosophy and the leadership qualities of Engr. Anebi.
Accordingly, the allegation against FFS is not only spurious, wicked, mischievous and concocted blackmail but a fabricated fallacy orchestrated by disgruntled elements with intent to the drag the name of FFS and its management into odium and public ridicule. They emphasized “Where in the world have achievements or the rebranding of an organization becomes an offence”? The present CG has done creditably well and Nigerians are impressed about his credentials, stance on transparency, corruption and above all, his blue print on the “Federal Fire Service of our Dreams” as encapsulated in his vision and mission statement since assuming the mantle of leadership.
It could be recalled that the said petitioner had made several provocative statements in the past against this administration and as such should not be taken seriously by well meaning Nigerians. As the petitioned is a patriotic Nigerian and key player in PMB Government and their mischievous aim is to dampen his enthusiasm to work for the government by distracting President Buhari’s government and later accusing him of achieving nothing.
Since the emergence of Buhari administration, there has been an upsurge of fifth columnists, mischief makers, agent provocateurs, hatchet jobbers and non-governmental individuals (NGI’s) who have taken to casting aspersions on hard working, selfless and vibrant Nigerians as a hobby and had also gone viral with spurious unsubstantiated and baseless allegations in the public domain in other to settle purported scores with perceived enemies. As a matter of fact, PMB should be warry of those keen on undermining top government functionaries merely to settle scores. The petition against FFS is one of those mischievous moves from the pit of hell aimed at ridiculing the hard earned reputation of the management of FFS.
The trio therefore, urged the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and the Ministry of Interior to be vigilant and cautious of such blackmailers and mischief makers who are hell-bent in smearing the good reputation of honest and hard working Nigerians working tirelessly for the good of PMB government because of past disagreements. It described the petition and their antics as mere hoax and hogwash.
The trio also appealed to the Nigerian media to be vigilant so as not to be hoodwinked by these unscrupulous elements but should seek for fair, objective and balanced reportage before publication and passes a vote of confidence on the hierarchy of the organization for the current re-engineering, prudent management of financial resources, institutional capacity building including human capacity development that can best be compared with international practices globally. They therefore, re-affirmed their confidence on the leadership style and management decision in repositioning FFS for better service delivery and task all relevant stakeholders to support the on-going revolution at FFS and the anti-corruption stance of Engr. Joseph Garba Anebi.
Leave a Reply