ADF protests composition of Character Commission leadership

Magnus Eze, Enugu

The Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF) has described the configuration of the recent nomination of Commissioners for the reconstitution of the Federal Character Commission (FCC) as presented to the Senate as unconstitutional and a gross violation of extant constitutional provisions.

ADF said the Presidency flouted the Federal Character principle regarding appointments into federal boards, parastatals and commissions, adding that the Commission in question is the most symbolic embodiment of matters relating to federal character.

Chairman of ADF’s Media and Publicity Bureau, Chief Abia Onyike, in a statement, Monday, stated that the Presidency made a fundamental error by nominating the Chairman and Secretary of the Commission from the North, contrary to Constitutional provisions which make it mandatory that the positions of Chairman and Secretary shall be spread evenly between the North and the South or vice versa.

The group contended that the Senate should correct the error committed by the Presidency by reviewing the imbalance forthwith, before confirming the nominees for the proper constitution of the Federal Character Commission.

“If the Senate fails to correct this major and fundamental error, it would send a strong signal in Nigerian public service that the idea of the federal character principle in Nigeria has become a ruse, more so if the body charged with the mandate for the implementation of the federal character principle can be allowed to be organically defaced,” ADF stated.