A civil society organisation (CSO), Alliance for Credible Legislative Conducts (ACLC) has called on the National Assembly to investigate the National Steel Council (NSC) for disregarding President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s order for dissolution.
The group said it will also present a petition to both chambers of the National Assembly to ensure that some people are punished for the disobedience to the presidential order.
About 10 months after Tinubu ordered the dissolution of boards of federal agencies and parastatals, the National Steel Council (NSC) is still intact.
But the chairman of ACLC, Comrade Afuye Shola, during a press conference in Abuja yesterday, said National Assembly should investigate such anomalies.
The CSO condemned what it described as flagrant abuse of office and disobedience to the lawful orders of the president and called on the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and the minister of Steel Development, Prince Shuaibu Audu to cause the board to respect the lawful directive of the president.
Shola said: “The attention of the Alliance for Credible Legislative Conducts (ACLC) has been drawn to a case of monumental disobedience of the Presidential order on dissolution of boards, by the Ministry of Steel Development, which flagrantly disregarded the directive of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, as it pertains to the dissolution of boards of parastatals.
“Specifically, on the 16th of June, 2023, in a circular signed by Willie Bassey, director of Information, on behalf of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, President Bola Tinubu approved the dissolution of all Boards of Federal Government Parastatals, Agencies, Institutions and Government-owned Companies, except those listed in the Third Schedule, Part I, Section 153 (i) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“Recent findings showed that the National Steel Council (NSC) was among the bodies dissolved by the above extraordinary Presidential order as it is clearly not among those Commissions and Councils listed in the constitution and therefore not exempted from that sweeping directive by Mr. President.
“We have equally discovered that the National Steel Council (NSC) is not only a parastatal under the definition of the Public Service Rules, but a policy making body, that sets operational and administrative policies in accordance with government’s policies, and supervise the implementation of such policies.
“We are abundantly constrained to inform Nigerian people today, about the utter disrespect for the orders of President Tinubu, high level of indiscipline, sheer irresponsibility and administrative rascality being extremely exhibited by the leadership of the Council, albeit with the acquiescence of Prince Shuaibu Audu, in the periphery of the National Steel Council (NSC),” the group said.
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