‘A section of the country dominates’ — reps to probe appointments into MDAs

The house of representatives has asked the Federal Character Commission (FCC) to submit the report of appointments in ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) made between 2015 and 2023.

The lower legislative chamber passed the resolution during the plenary session on Tuesday following the adoption of a motion sponsored by Paul Nnamchi, a Labour Party (LP) lawmaker from Enugu.

Former President Muhammadu Buhari governed from 2015 to 2023.

When he held sway, Buhari was accused by critics of alleged lopsidedness in the appointment of people to head government offices — negating the principle of federal character.

But Buhari dismissed the claim at the time, stating that those he appointed “earned it”.

While moving the motion, the lawmaker said the essence of the federal character principle was to promote national cohesion and equal opportunities.

“Twenty-four years after its constitutional entrenchment, the perception is that there exists brazen domination of the bureaucratic, economic, media and political posts at all levels by a section of the country at the expense of the others,” the lawmaker said.

The lawmaker also claimed that there is a “clash of interests” among the commissioners at the commission.

“Federal Character Commission has virtually abdicated its constitutional and statutory responsibilities and degenerated into personality clash of interest among its commissioners as was the case about a year ago,” he said.

The motion was adopted when it was put to a voice vote by Benjamin Kalu, deputy speaker and presiding officer.

The house resolved to set up an ad hoc committee, to among other things, request the commission to forward “the returns on appointments undertaken by ministries, departments and agencies under its jurisdiction between 2015–2023″.

Section 14(3) of the 1999 constitution mandates government agencies to reflect the federal character principle in the conduct of their affairs to promote national unity.

The section states: “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 reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to 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.”