The House of Representatives Committee on Federal Character, has promised to work towards ensuring equitable distribution of employment in all government agencies to reflect the federal character and promote national unity.
The Chairman of the committee, Hon Idris Wase, gave the assurance at the inaugural meeting of the Committee in Abuja. He also said that the committee will be diligent in its oversight to ensure there is equitable distribution of employment across the country.
Hon Wase noted that the committee is better equipped with adequate legislative backing to dispense its core mandate.
He ruled that the Federal Character Commission (FCC) appear before the committee next week on Tuesday to brief on its level of compliance in the equitable spread of employment across the board.
“We will only do justice and continue to do the right thing I want to say that we should take this as a priority. First colleagues I want to refer you to section 14(3) of the Constitution, it says 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 State or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that Government or in any of its agencies.
“This is the main thrust of our own committee and our function does not just end at the national level, and this is where we have to start our work immediately. We want to believe maximally that by next week Tuesday, we should have another meeting with the Federal Character Commission.
“We have offices virtually in all the states of Nigeria and they are supposed to be monitoring this particular section that I quoted, unfortunately not much is been done and that provision is in section 14(4) it says ‘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 manner 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’.
“It means then the function that the federal character is supposed to be doing is also to be concerned about how government businesses are carried out, how employments are carried out. And this is the mandate that we must ensure this time around that our various state offices carry out such and we will carry out our oversight on them effectively and efficiently.
“These are the main provisions of the constitution. And I will also read to you the federal character as a commission what they are expected to do for the nation, which we are supposed to oversight taken from the constitutional provisions that I just read, it says the Federal Character Commission shall comprise the following members a chairman, and one person to represent each state of the Federation and the federal capital territory Abuja. The chairman and members are to be appointed by the president subject to confirmation of the Senate.
“Colleagues you know we have a lot of work to do and I want to plead with you to ensure that we do our best. So I want to believe we are better equipped, we are capable of what is enshrined in the constitution as to what we are expected to do and that is why I am saying that we have a lot of work to do.
There is no time for us to go to bed and there is no time for us to rest,” Hon Wase said.
He advised members of the committee to always have the interest of Nigeria in mind during the discharge of their assignment.
Members of the committee are drawn from the thirty-six states of the country.
Dominica Nwabufo
