Afenifere to Senate: Reject Dankaka, Buhari’s nominee for FCC chairman

Afenifere, has called on the Senate to reject President Muhammadu Buhari’s nominee for the position of chairman of Federal Character Commission (FCC), Farida Dankaka, saying doing otherwise would be in violation of Section 4 of the subsidiary legislation setting up the commission.

Afenifere, a pan-Yoruba socio-political group, made the call on Wednesday in a statement made available to the Nigerian Tribune by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr Yinka Odumakin.

The group said the FCC by the nomination of Dankaka, who hails from Kwara State as its chairman and the incumbent secretary, Muhammad Bello Tukur, who is from Taraba, is in violation of the law setting up the commission.

According to Afenifere, Section 4 of the subsidiary legislation states: “Where the number of positions available cannot go round the states of the federation or the Federal Capital, the distribution shall be on a zonal basis. But in the case where two positions are available, the positions shall be shared between the northern and southern zones.”

Afenifere ascertained that it had always been the tradition that chairman and secretary of the commission were from the North and South respectively, recalling that past regimes, including those of Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan had appointed Northerners as chairmen and Southerners as secretaries in line with the law setting up the commission.

“When Mr President appointed Mohammed Bello Tukur, the legal adviser of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) as the Secretary of the Federal Character Commission, many thought it was to pave way for the first Southern Chairman of the Commission. That was not to be.

“Instead, in a rather brazen act, the penultimate Ag. Chairman, Mallam Shettima, rather than handover to a Southern commissioner handed over to the Secretary of the Commission.

“It was as if the government does not recognize that appointing a Meyitti Allah official as FCC Secretary was offensive enough,” Afenifere lamented.

While citing other relevant sections of the condition, which had been violated, the pan-Yoruba socio-political group said the Buhari-led administration had, in the past five years, “consistently violated one of the most ingenious and ambitious affirmative actions entrenched in our constitution to promote national unity uniquely named Federal Character.”

The group, therefore, called on the Senate and all well-meaning Nigerians to resist and reject what it termed “consistent negation of a critical national consensus,” saying that the Senate should emphasise the supremacy of the country’s constitution and the need to build an inclusive state with the coronavirus pandemic being a wakeup call.

It warned that should the Senate fail to prevail upon the president to reconstitute the leadership of the FCC to reflect Federal Character, it would be legitimizing the wanton impunity of his government.

“The Senate should emphasise the supremacy of our constitution and the need to build an inclusive state. The coronavirus should be a wakeup call.

“If the president is not prevailed upon to reconstitute the leadership of the FCC to reflect Federal Character, the Senate would be legitimizing the wanton impunity of the Buhari government,” Afenifere warned.

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