Leadership crisis threatens Federal Character Commission
• Acting chairman absolves self of blame
ALEADERSHIP crisis might be brewing in the Federal Character Commission (FCC) following an alleged attempt by its immediate past boss to seek tenure elongation through the back door.
The helmsman’s official term ended last month.
The FCC, one of 14 independent executive bodies empowered by Section 153 (1) of the 1999 Constitution, is tasked with ensuring unbiased geographical spread of government offices among the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Akin to its mandate, offices of the commission are also to be shared with equal representation of all the states and geo-political zones. The body consists of 37 commissioners representing all the states and Abuja, while the President, through the approval and confirmation of the Senate in accordance with Section 2(2) of the Commission’s Establishment Act, appoints a chairman for a five-year tenure.
Since the establishment of the commission in 1995, however, the position of the executive chairman has always gone to the northern part of the country, while the south received the office of the secretary, who is also appointed by the President.
When there is a vacancy in the office of the chairman, pending the President’s appointment of a substantive helmsman, the commission appoints the most senior serving representative in an acting capacity, until the termination of his tenure as commissioner.
But since last year, not only have two persons from the north occupied the two topmost positions; they were also from the same geopolitical zone.
The former acting chairman, Dr. Shettima Bukar Abba, who is from Borno State took the mantle of leadership January 2016. Mohammed Bello Tukur from Taraba was appointed substantive secretary in 2017. The aberration, contrary to the commission’s subsidiary legislation, should have been corrected at the expiration of Shettima’s tenure last month.
Section 4 of the subsidiary legislation states: “Where the number of positions available cannot go round the states of the federation or the Federal Capital, the distribution shall be on zonal basis. But in the case where two positions are available, the positions shall be shared between the northern and southern zones.”
Sources, however, told Theguardian that expectations were dashed as Shettima allegedly refused to let go of the office and might have been making clandestine moves to dig his heels in.
He has also been accused of failing to do a proper handing over. This runs foul of a directive by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) in December last year (Ref. NO.SGF.50/S.11/C.2/268) that all heads of government agencies, at the expiration of their tenures, hand over to the most senior persons in their establishments.