Accounting regulators have, for many years, had concerns about the possible lack of Independence between\nauditors and their clients, which arises from a long-standing professional relationship between the two parties. The\nreservation stems from a widely-held belief that the risk of audit failure increases when an auditor and a client remain\ntogether for a long period of time. The possibility exists that auditors might get too familiar with their clients and in\nconsequence loses professional scepticism and objectivity when the relationship goes on for too long. Stakeholders\nare therefore interested in if long-term relationship between companies and their auditors gives rise to closeness that\nimpairs auditors� independence and reduces quality of audit work. With these in view, an attempt was made by the\nresearch to examine the link between audit tenure, rotation, and accounting conservatism using empirical data from\nNigeria. Secondary data were randomly gathered by drawing 100 observations from the published financial statements\nof sample companies operating in the financial and non-financial sectors. Quantitative methods such as descriptive\nstatistics, correlation, and multiple- regression analysis were used for data analyses. Findings were that; the tenure of\nauditor has a significant positive influence on firms accounting conservatism; the rotation of audit firms also significantly\ninfluences accounting conservatism. The study recommends the mandatory rotation of audit firms� lead engagement\npartner and the review partner on an engagement for publicly listed companies, and the strict prohibition of providing\nnon-audit services by auditors to their clients to enhance auditors� independence and the quality of audit services.
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