Is Buhari still guided by Federal Character Principle?
With the wave of political appointments currently sweeping across the country, the above question becomes imperative as indications shows that 95% of the appointments made so far by President Buhari have gone to the North. Although Mr. President has repeatedly stated that merit is what is guiding his appointments, the unavoidable question is what does the constitution says in regards to making appointments?
So many arguments have been advanced in defense of President Buhari domiciling the majority of his appointments so far in the North. Top of the argument is that the President should appoint those who are qualified and trustworthy and should disregard the Federal Character Principle. Even the former Special Assistant to former President Shehu Shagari in the Second Republic Professor Pat Utomi lend his voice to the discussion by throwing up another unfortunate dimension that Buhari can make all his appointments from the same village. This shows the level/quality of Advice our leaders are getting which in turn has daring effects for our democracy. Imagine Prof. Utomi himself a former Presidential Adviser been saddled by President Buhari to Advise for this administration, and your guess is as good as mine.
Although one may be tempted to further argue and state immediately there are well qualified and trustworthy people across the six geopolitical zones of the country and such argument in defense of the President is making his so-called competent mainly from the North as lame and irrelevant.
Today one asks a question to those who argue that Buhari should appoint those he trust: “How do you say a President who is ruling over 170 millions of people of different tribes isn’t tribalistic when he finds it hard to source men and women from other tribes and sections of the country to work with?”, doesn’t this raise the same query that a President who should be a father of all is finding it difficult to trust Nigerians from other ethnic blocs and sections of the country? Doesn’t this further deepens the historical line of mistrust that still exists between Nigerians of different tribes that makes some Nigerians suffer historical mistrusts that exists simply because of being born from a particular ethnic stock, of which one has no control over?
We believe anybody who holds such an exalted office as President should be able to rise above petty tribal sentiments. This is why many still reserve tremendous respect for former President Goodluck Jonathan who respected the spirit of Federal Character to the letter; a feat which many erroneously interpreted as trying to politically please everybody. This was uncharitable and unfair to a man who sincerely loved and had the interest of Nigerians deep inside his heart.
It is important to understand the section of the constitution that talks about Federal Character Principle and which was propounded by the General Yakubu Gowon administration after the civil war to foster unity, peace, love and inclusiveness amongst Nigerians of different tribes. The Federal Character Principle has been enshrined in our constitution since 1979. The Principle seeks to ensure that appointments to public service institutions fairly reflect the linguistic, ethnic, religious, and geographic diversity of the country. Applications of the principle in the federal civil service and the military ensure that there is a balancing of the merit principle and the quota system, based essentially on the states of origin. The key words in this principle are merit and quota must be the guiding principle. But as things stand today and with the advancement of Nigerians both academically and with experience, can it be said that there is no geopolitical region in Nigeria of today that can’t produce a competent candidate to fill whatsoever positions that is vacant for a President to make his appointment.
It must be saliently observed that with the accomplishments of the South East geopolitical zone in all aspects of human endeavor, it only took President Jonathan coming into office for the region to produce the first Chief of Army Staff (COAS) for the country in the person of Lieutenant General Azubuike Ihejirika. Does it mean that no Igbo have been qualified to occupy that position? And even at that, the tenure of Ihejirika didn’t go without accusations from certain sections of the country that he was marginalizing them in appointments and postings inside the army. This further goes to show how some people weren’t use to an Igbo man occupying such sensitive position and could not accept his leadership.
Just few days ago President Buhari appointed a new boss for the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) Ahmed Lawan Kuru, another northerner to add to his endless list of northerners exclusively benefiting from his harvest of appointments made so far. But this appointment didn’t pass with an echo that some sections of the constitution may have been floated with this appointment as it is the Senate alone that is vested with the powers to rectify and approve such appointment.
It therefore is incumbent upon the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, to checkmate and balance the appointments made by President Buhari to prevent him from floating the constitution as indications so far suggests that Mr. President is reluctant in making journeys down to the South of the country to source for candidates each time new positions opens up to be filled.
It should be recalled that on the exhaustion of the tenure of Ms. Ifueko Omoigui-Okauru from the South East as Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), then President Jonathan had nominated a Barclays Banker from London Mrs. Mfon Akpan from the South-South to replace the outgoing Ms. Ifueko, but the 7th Senate stiffly resisted confirming the appointment and compelled Mr. President to in the spirit of Federal Character nominate a northerner to take over the position. This led to the Senate to repeatedly refuse allowing then Senate Leader Victor Ndoma-Egba to read Mrs. Akpan nomination on the floor of the Senate and the then Acting Chairman of the FIRS Commission, Alhaji Kabir Mashi a northerner was given the nod by the Senate to continue in that position.
The 8th Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria under the Chairmanship of His Excellency Senator (Dr.) Abubakar Bukola Saraki, must a matter of urgency and national interest subject the appointments made so far by Mr. President under intense scrutiny to ascertain that the sections of the constitution that mandates and preserves the spirit of Federal Character is upheld at all times to foster unity and togetherness, and that no sections of the country suffers any marginalization which may have arisen due to such sections not voting overwhelmingly for a particular candidate as elections are over and anyone who was a Presidential candidate during the elections and has won has now moved forward from the position of a candidate and has been sworn in as President to protect the constitution.
Diana-Abasi Udoh is a public commentator and PhD Candidate/Researcher at Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences (PLEN), University of Copenhagen
Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.
