The Chairman of the Federal Character Commission (FCC), Muheeba Dankaka, has blamed poor distribution of socio-economic projects across the country on inadequate data.

She called on stakeholders to adhere strictly to equity, fairness and justice for the distribution of infrastructural facilities, economic and social amenities amongst the federating units.

Dankaka, disclosed this in Abuja, during the sensitization workshop for stakeholders from North Central Geo-political Zone, with the Theme: “Equity Fairness And Justice in the Distribution of Resources as a Tool in Realizing the Renewed Hope Agenda” organized by the FCC in partnership with the Hyphen Gali Company LTD.

She said the workshops aim at galvanizing the feelings and opinions of stakeholders with a view of strengthening the operations of the commission for the betterment of the citizens.

Dankaka, who was represented by the federal commissioner representing Kwara State, at the commission, Mr James John Kolo, said, “Inadequate data on infrastructural distribution and spread of socio-economic projects in Nigeria have made it difficult to appraise even distribution of projects and programmes.

“The commission has the constitutional mandate to monitor the equitable allocation and distribution of projects and programmes, to ensure equity and fairness within the federation and evaluate the spread of socio-economic amenities as represented by the location of projects in Nigeria, and ensure compliance.

“Such development programmes and projects include schools, hospitals, dams, road networks and power projects, social intervention among others. This workshop therefore offers an opportunity for our stakeholders to understand the imperatives of not only submission of accurate data to regulatory authorities like ours but also understand the necessity for keeping data that may be required from time to time to support development.

“It is therefore coming at a time when, the will of the present administration is in consonance with the fact that the principle of Federal character is an enduring legacy that our nation will continue to use in a long time to come in order to eliminate suspicion, feeling of marginalization and alienation amongst the citizenry.”

In his paper presentation, Mr David Olufemi Fakeye, said: “If the resources are equitably distributed, if there is no neglect of any part of this country, if everybody is carried along there will be unity and integration.

“If we look at it and compare it with what we have in the past, we are improving better than what we have in the past. We are still improving. We will get there.”

Also, The commissioner representing Taraba State in the Commission, Armaya’u Garba Abubakar, said that the commission is working hard to ensure that the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) implement the mandate of the Character Policy Index (CBI) in the recruitment process.
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