FIRS Chairman must be a Northerner – Northern Governors Forum

Despite pleas from President Goodluck Jonathan, the Northern Governors Forum are bent on rejecting Mfon Akpan as Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), the governors are insisting the position must be filled with a northerner.

After a meeting of the Northern Governors forum on Saturday, the senators vowed to resist the appointment of President Jonathan's nominee as it allegedly violated the Federal Character principle.

A senator who spoke anonymously said, “We are united this time round on the FIRS slot going to the North, after the South-south has occupied it for almost 10 years.

“Also, on merit, we want to know why the acting FIRS Chairman, Kabir Mashi, who had shot up the revenue of the agency from above ₦3.4 trillion to about ₦6 trillion, is not qualified.

“Of about 800 chartered accountants in the FIRS, 10 are in the directorate cadre. Yet, the government did not find any of these Nigerians qualified to lead the agency. Something must be wrong.”

Another senator accused the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of being the force behind the president's nomination of Mfon Akpan.

However, Chief Godswill Akpabio, Governor of Akwa Ibom State will today lead a lobbying team to the senate to back Akpan’s nomination.