Facts have emerged that the Federal Government under the leadership of President Ebele Goodluck has grossly violated the federal character principle by appointing large chunk of citizens of the Southeast(SE) and South-south(SS) zones as heads of agencies and parastatals responsible for the financial and economic fate of Nigeria.
This is coming just as the Federal Character Commission(FCC) admitted its incapacity to stop the tide due to logistic constraints.
Documents obtained by Peoples Daily Weekend reveal that at the head of the pack is the Minister of Finance and Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, an Ibo from Delta state.
Corollary to her position runs a long list of appointees to parastatals and agencies dominated by South-East and South-south zones to the huge detriment of other zones.
For instance, in a list marked “Strategic Public Sector Finance/Economy Leaders, March 2014” numbering 26 appointees, 14 heads of strategic agencies all hail from the Ibo-speaking South-East zone, three from South-south, three from South-west(SW), three from North-central(NC), two from North-west (NW)and one from the North-east(NE).
Besides Prof. Nwanze Okidegbe, the chief economic adviser to the President, heads of the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, Nigeria Stock Exchange, Securities and Exchange Commission, Assets Management Company of Nigeria, Investment and Securities Tribunal, National Pension Commission(PENCOM),Bureau of Public Procurement, Debt Management Office, Fiscal Responsibility Commission, Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission; National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission and Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority are all indigenes of the SE.
The SS heads the Budget Office, Bank of Industry while the third, Mr Godwin Emefiele is already a Central Bank of Nigeria Governor- designate following the suspension of current holder, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. The SW hold offices of the National Insurance Commission, Accountant-General and Infrastructure Bank. The NC has the Auditor-General, Nigerian Export/Import Bank and Bank of Agricuture; the NW with Nigeria Customs Service and the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation while the NE has only the Federal Mortgage Bank. In the list, the headship of the Federal Inland Revenue Service is yet to be appointed probably due to the concern raised by the Senate over balance in appointments (see lists on page 9 for details).
Another expanded list of 65 names including non-finance and economic slots, summarises the dominance of the SE particularly by about 50 percent followed by the SS, a not too significant percentage for the SW while the entire North is grudgingly left with the rest.
Peoples Daily Weekend also observes that the moment a position is left by a Northerner through retirement, death or any other cause, most replacement nominees sent to the National Assembly would immediately come from the President’s zone or the SE.
Senators also raised this point recently when the list of new CBN non-executive Board members was released.
Senators were sharply divided along geo-political lines in a June 27,2013 plenary over the lack of observance of the federal character principle in federal appointments by President Goodluck Jonathan.
Many senators argued that President Jonathan’s nominations did not adhere to the principles of federal character as enshrined in Section 14 (3) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
Senators expressed reservations about the president’s nominations during confirmation of board appointments into the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Judicial Service Commission (JSC).
Senate President David Mark equally expressed reservations about the matter. Although he described the reservations of his colleagues as ‘healthy’, Mark said the day of reckoning would soon come.
Mark warned, however, that federal character could not be the ‘end of it all’ at the expense of merit in appointment of Nigerians into government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).
He cautioned that the issue of federal character should not be overstretched.
Senators were sharply divided over the confirmation of the appointment of four non-executive members of the board of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
They are Muhammad Musa Kafarati (North-East), Collons Chike Chikeluba (South-East), Adaba Anthony Adeiza (North-Central) and Ayuli Jemide (South-South).
Although they were eventually confirmed, senators insisted that the federal character principle, as enshrined in the constitution, must be followed in all appointments.
Senate Minority Whip, Ganiyu Solomon observed that since the South-West was not represented in the list of those nominated for appointments, the remaining slot should be reserved for the zone in the interest of equity and fair play.
Solomon got support from Senator Olufemi Lanlehin, who noted that the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF) and the permanent secretary, although were from the South-West, were members of the board due to the positions they held.
He argued that it would be wrong to say that they were representing the South-West on the board since they were not appointed as non-executive members of the board.
But Senator Mohammed Goje reminded him that the AGF and the permanent secretary were members of the board. Goje reiterated that the North-East geo-political zone had always been forgotten in terms of appointment.
He added that Kafarati appointed from the North- East was qualified for the position he was nominated to serve having served meritoriously in sensitive positions in the past.
Senator Smart Adeyemi, however, advised the chamber to amend the CBN Act to accommodate all geo-political zones of the country in future appointments as a way of reflecting the federal character principle.
He said senators struggled to ensure that their geo-political zones were represented in appointments because of favouritism and nepotism which had beclouded appointments in the country.
“Clearly, the North as a whole is further disadvantaged by Sanusi Lamido Sanusi’s ouster( unlike the Southwest from where another Yoruba was just nominated to fill the vacancy arising from Deputy Governor Tunde Lemo’s retirement in January 2014. Nevertheless, the greater iniquity and gross insensitivity is the predominace of the Igbo/SE/SS on the CBN Board and in top public sector finance/ economy-related posts…which clearly is unconstitutional. Mr. Godwin Emefiele, the CBN Governor-designate is Igbo from Agbor, Delta state”, a source told Peoples Daily Weekend.
Speaking on the issue, Secretary of the Federal Character Commission(FCC) Barr. Jude Rex Ogbuku, admitted the lopsidedness in most of the strategic public financial /economic sector and attributed it to the lack of limited resources of the commission to take proactive measures expected of them in dealing with the situation.
According to him, the commission is expected to monitor all the ministries, department and agencies (MDA’s), to see whether they are complying with the regulations, but could not.
“It is common knowledge to see these days when a chief executive of an organization, is given an office, the first things he does is to bring kinsmen from his village or states to occupy some of the parastatals under him, forgetting that this is a federal system where there are federal character laws”.
“That is why we are supposed to be the policeman to ensure the enforcement and the possibility of enforcing federal character principles, which we were unable to do it due to finance”.
On whether the non-prosecution of any offender agency that violates the rules is responsible for the continued violation, he said “it is not true that the commission has not gone to court, I came here in August 2012, we have gone to court with key organizations like Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), and many others. The intention is not to punish if you can achieve a full cooperation”.
“We must first of all let the all the organizations know the impact of what they are doing and the consequences thereof, and if they proceed thereafter, I think we have a straight forward way of moving to court and inform them that this is how it is and they willfully did that, the law will punished you for the action that you are quite responsible”.
“Our intimate goals is to achieved compliance, in doing that we extract an undertaking that they will venture into such misdeeds, it will also served as an evidence against next time minding the fact that there are possibilities of change of leadership, we again insisted that the chief executives should come for an interaction, you know how the system work, one way or the other they always have one excuse to tell”.
He remain such organizations that the commission despite its scarce resources will continue to watch those agencies, and call on the ministries to come for their regular interactions with the commission so that they don’t run foul of the law.
“If we extended an invitation to you and you refuse to come and we carry out an investigation and we caught you act in confrontation with the law, we will send it in motion against you by taking you to court”.
Chairman House of Representatives Committee on Federal Character, Rep Ahmed Idris (APC Plateau), said his Committee has received a lot of petition in that regard and has sent a written request to the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), asking for the Comprehensive list of all the heads of MDA’s, and they are yet to receive any feedback from them.
“We will continue to press for their response, so that it serves as an evidence on the next line of action we will take, you know why the SGF refused to give us the list until now, we cannot act without the full document”.
He added that, a member in the House of Representative has already presented a motion on the floor, to compel the SGF to release the said list.
When the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, Ahmed Markarafi was sent a text message on the issue, he said that he is not in charge of the committees that oversee the financial institutions concerned, and therefore could not comment on the issue.
He therefore directed our correspondent to the Senate Committee chairmen concerned with oversight of the agencies.
Source: People’s Daily
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