Grounding Federal Character Commission

IT is unacceptable that the Federal Character Commission (FCC) is operating with only one commissioner out of the 37 required by law because the tenure of 36 commissioners expired. The Federal Government’s failure to appoint replacements for those whose tenure expired has led to a situation where the current Acting Executive Chairman of the commission, Ambassador Abdullahi Halidu Shinkafi, is the only remaining federal commissioner at the agency. It appears that the Buhari administration has adopted a policy of not appointing new commissioners in order to cripple the organisation. The expiration of the tenure of the 36 commissioners did not occur at the same time. Indeed, the process was gradual, which means that if the government wanted to replace some of them, it had several years to do so. For instance, in December 2018, only eight states had commissioners. By the end of that year, the tenure of four out of this number expired. This is unfortunate. Shinkafi ‘s tenure expires in April. He may likely hand over to the most senior staff in the commission as the acting Executive Chairman if by April the Federal Government still fails to appoint new commissioners to replace those that have left.

The claim that this is a deliberate policy of the government is further buttressed by the widespread allegation of lopsidedness in the appointments made by the Federal Government since President Muhammadu Buhari commenced a second term of office in 2019. Social and traditional media have consistently been agog with criticism of the government’s appointments which have been skewed in favour of a section of the North. There are also claims of nepotism against the government in terms of the preference of the president to favour his extended family in appointments into Federal Government parastatals.  There are also allegations  that secret recruitments have been going on in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) such as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD), Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA), National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), National Space Research and Development Agency, and the National Open University (NOUN).Others are the Federal Civil Service Commission, University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Rural Electrification Agency, Nigerian Navy and many more. In October 2019, the chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other offences Commission (ICPC), Bolaji Owasanoye, told the joint Senate and House of Representatives Committee on Anti-corruption and Financial Crimes at the 2020 budget defence that after the commission discovered N9.2bn over-bloated personnel costs of MDAs, the MDAs went on secret recruitments to cover up.

The FCC is the agency saddled with the responsibility of addressing such anomalies. Grounding the commission removes the possibility of oversight and checks on the impunity with which these appointments have been made. The FCC is a Federal Government body established by law to implement and enforce the federal character principle to ensure fairness and equity in the distribution of public posts and socio-economic infrastructure among the various units of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It was borne out of the 1994/95 political conference that came in the aftermath of the crisis that attended the annulment of the presidential election of  12 June 1993.  It was to “Work out an equitable formula, subject to the approval of the  National Assembly, for distribution of all cadres of posts in the public service of the federation and of the states, the Armed Forces of the Federation, the Nigeria Police Force, other government security agencies and government-owned companies/parastatals of the states. It is also mandated to “promote, monitor and enforce compliance with the principle of proportional sharing of all bureaucratic, economic, media and political posts at all levels of government.”

Since the return to civilian rule in 1999, the commission has looked into claims of marginalisation by sections of the country in public sector appointments. During the Obasanjo administration, a section of the North claimed that appointments had been made to favour the southern part of the country. The National Assembly had to invite the FCC to provide detailed analysis of the distribution of key appointments. The analysis of the FCC then showed that the allegations were false. Now that claims of marginalisation and nepotism have trailed the appointments made by the Federal Government, it is imperative that the FCC is urgently constituted to allow it to function and play its vital roles.

As it is, there is a vacuum that has virtually paralysed the organization. Section 7(4) provides that the quorum for a meeting of the commission shall be “not less than one-third of the total number of members of the commission at the date of the meeting.” Given that there is currently only a single commissioner, no meaningful meeting can be held. This effectively means that recruitments into MDAs are not being reviewed to ensure equitable distribution.  Indeed, no meeting has been held for a long time since a quorum could not be formed. The absence of commissioners has disrupted decision making and the monitoring of recruitment exercises and provided room for job racketeering in MDAs. This situation should be stopped.