FCC: Appointment of northerners as Chairman, Secretary negates federal character — Chidoka
*Asks Senate to reject northern nominee for FCC chairman
A
chieftain of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Osita Chidoka, has
called on the Senate to reject the nomination of candidates from
northern states of Kwara and Taraba as chairman, and secretary,
respectively, of Federal Character Commission, FCC.
Chidoka said
the nomination violated Section 4 of the subsidiary legislation which
states that the distribution of position shall be across the zones.
He
said that it had always been the tradition that Chairman and Secretary
are from the North and South, respectively, for the same reason past
governments, including that of Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan,
had appointed northerners as chairmen and southerners as secretaries.
According
to Chidoka, “where the number of positions available cannot go round
the states of the federation or the Federal Capital, the distribution
shall be on zonal basis, but in the case where two positions are
available, the positions shall be shared between the northern and
southern zones.”
The former Aviation Minister recalled that when
President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Mohammed Bello Tukur, the Legal
Adviser of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria,
MACBAN, as Secretary of the FCC, many thought it was to pave the way for
the first southern Chairman of the commission.
He said: “Instead
in a rather brazen act the penultimate acting Chairman Mallam Shettima
rather than handover to a southern commissioner handed over to the
Secretary of the Commission.
“The President in violation of
Chapter 2 of the constitution aptly named Fundamental Objectives and
Directive Principles of State Policy that provides in Section 13 that;
“It
shall be the duty and responsibility of all organs of government, and
of all authorities and persons, exercising legislative, executive or
judicial powers, to conform to, observe and apply the provisions of this
Chapter of this Constitution’ has appointed a Chairman in violation of
the spirit and letters of our laws.
“Chapter 2 Sec14(3) expressly
mandates that ‘The composition of the Government of the Federation or
any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out
in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the
need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty,
thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a
few state or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that
government or in any of its agencies’.
“But this government has
consistently violated one of the most ingenious and ambitious
affirmative actions entrenched in our constitution to promote national
unity uniquely named Federal Character.”
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