A coalition of seven Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) has commenced a campaign aimed at pressuring President Bola Tinubu into giving his assent to the Audit Service Bill passed by the National Assembly .

The CSOs include the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), Action Aid Nigeria, Paradigm Leadership Support Initiative, Accountability Lab, Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice, The Statecraft Report, and BUDGIT.

Briefing the media today, in Abuja, on why the President should urgently give his assent, the Lead Director of CSJ, Eze Onyekpere, said that signing the bill is crucial to crowning the several fiscal reforms introduced by President Bola Tinubu.

He added that it would also make the anti-corruption efforts of the current administration more effective by closing various avenues of revenue leakage.

The groups also pushed for the Attorney-General of the Federation to publish a simplified version of the law for public understanding and for the government to communicate the reform to international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and AFROSAI-E as part of governance reforms under the Renewed Hope Agenda.

The Lead Director of the Centre for Social Justice, Eze Onyekpere, said the proposed legislation would address longstanding gaps in Nigeria’s audit system and align the country with global standards of fiscal accountability.

Onyekpere said the proposed law would fill longstanding gaps in Nigeria’s audit system and align the country with global standards of accountability and fiscal governance.

According to him, the bill seeks to repeal the obsolete Audit Ordinance of 1956 and establish a modern Federal Audit Service with expanded powers for the Auditor-General for the Federation.

He noted that the existing audit framework is outdated and no longer adequate to address present-day governance and accountability challenges.

Onyekpere said: “The bill seeks to strengthen the last mile of public finance management and the anti-corruption agenda of the Federal Government of Nigeria.

“We are supposed to inform Nigerians, the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary, so that together we can take up this campaign to convince the President that this assent will be in his personal interest and in the interest of the nation at large.”