Whither federal character?

When it was reported that 75 per cent of the recent recruitment done by goliathan anti-corruption watchdog, the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was skewed in favour of the North, a familiar theme of ‘treasures for tribesmen’ tickled the aural organs of those sufficiently familiar with Nigeria’s supremely invidious distribution of the public weal. ‘There we go again’, many thought, lamentingly bemoaning the incorrigible propensity of a people to stampede where angels fear to tread.

To be clear enough, Nigeria is a study in diversity. A country of over 170 million people, occupying an Area Total of 923,768 km2  divided into six regions of 36 states with a Federal Capital Territory. Blessed with more than 250 ethnic groups predominantly adherents of Christianity or Islam, Nigeria is a country of many a human resource, in spite of the countless that have fallen through the cracks of a wobbly system.

Nigeria also has a constitution, undoubtedly the fons et origo, the supreme law of the land from which all other legislations must of necessity draw life and sustenance and for good measure, those other legislations abound and are constantly being churned out by the Nigerian legislative machine in spite of the skepticism and cynicism almost always haunting our legislators and their activities.

Nigeria is also a country of the unemployed and the unemployable, together forming a witch’s broth of colossal wastage of human resources not to talk of the dark reality of being fodder for terrorist sects and criminal syndicates. When the apocalyptic statistics that about 79.9 million Nigerians were unemployed recently filtered into the public space, many citizens sourly observed that it was much worse and that even those wearing the toga of employment were mostly grossly underemployed.

In any country of such cyclopean diversity and brobdingnagian resources pitifully underutilised and mercilessly plundered, the distribution of the common weal is wont to generate disputes and elicit grumbles. When the setting is a country like Nigeria where years of atrocious mismanagement, shocking dereliction and ruthless savagery on resources have engendered cracks wide enough to swallow an entire generation, you can expect disputatious postures at the banquet table of the common weal.

It is against this backdrop that the sneaking suspicion that the recent recruitments in the EFCC were tailored to suit a region strikes a particularly sour note. The current administration rode into power on the wings of a promise to halt the irreversible march to self-destruction that Nigeria was gleefully herded on by a delinquent political establishment. Since mounting the saddle, President Muhammadu Buhari has sought to steer a government of change amidst defiant opposition and seismic skepticism and cynicism. The destination and destiny of this historic and heroic attempt to rescue Nigeria from a ‘clan of hyenas’ remain pensively to be seen.

Apathy and even tragedy have always greeted recruitment exercises in Nigeria. The tragic circumstances under which the country lost 16 of her very young and brightest in the Nigerian Immigration recruitment hoax of 2014 remain painfully fresh in our memory. Many believe and strongly too, that whenever there are employment openings in Government parastatals and agencies, the gate keepers hasten to advertise for applications which they use merely as a veneer for employing their cronies. The veracity or otherwise of this belief strongly favours its truism.

Envisaging a situation where the distribution of the public weal is unjustly skewed in favour of a section of the country to the detriment and chagrin of the others based on the caprices of those in charge, the CFRN 1999 presciently provides in Section 14(3) and 14(4) for the federal character of Nigeria to be strictly adhered to in the distribution of the Nigerian commonwealth.
Obiezu wrote from Abuja.

It provides that “The Composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to effect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few states or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that Government or in any of its agencies” and that “The composition of the Government of a State, a Local Government council, or any of the agencies of such government or Council, and the conduct of the affairs of the Government or council or such agencies shall be carried out in such manners as to recognise the diversity of the people within its area of authority and the need to promote a sense of belonging and loyalty among all the people of the Federation” in Sections 14(3) and 14(4) respectively.

The importance the constitution places on these sections which are so crucial to national unity are further highlighted by the establishment of a Federal Character Commission in Section 153(1).

Adherence to this principle presupposes that in keeping with the spirit and letter of the constitution whenever public resources from which federal employment opportunities cannot be weaned fall for distribution, every section of the country must be equitably considered and given its due. The vagaries notwithstanding for indeed, in every section of the country, the premium placed on education and training over the years has left in its happy trail young and qualified minds ready to take on responsibilities at the highest levels of national affairs. Thus, the argument that meritocracy would inhibit some sections of the country is now expired.

Since President Buhari became the number one citizen of the country, many a grumble has been elicited from sections of the country by the supposed nepotism and marginalisation trailing appointments into key positions in the country. While many have openly called out the President for his seeming lopsided preference for people from the Northern Part of the country, particularly the North East where he hails from, others have more quietly traced the trail purporting to show a conscious attempt to submerge other sections of the country in irrelevance.

Whether these have any substance whatsoever is still latently emerging and would be borne out by time. But let those who keep the common weal, presumptuously consider same as their personal fealty and blithely ladle out behemoth chunks to their tribesmen hasten to the chastening classes of history and be sufficiently schooled in the transience of power, position and privilege which turns on ‘in today, out tomorrow’. May they tread with caution steeped in fairness and justice lest the inevitable day of the ‘new Pharaoh who did not know Joseph’ come upon them like a thief in the night.
Obiezu wrote from Abuja.