Senator Dahiru Awaisu Kuta (PDP, Niger) is the Chairman Senate Committee on Federal Character. In this interview with UCHENNA AWOM he laments the lopsidedness in the staff structure of some federal institutions and said Nigerians can enforce their rights in that regard.
How has the journey been for your committee so far? What are the challenges?
Our target is to make the committee one of the most vibrant in the Senate, but we have realized that our job is enormous. We are supposed to oversee government agencies, departments and institutions as they affect federal character principle. One of our targets is to ensure public enlightenment on what the federal character principle is all about. We first asked these organizations to send us their nominal roll, particularly as it affects the senior staff. A lot of sentiments have come to play in terms of appointments and promotions. We have realized that many of the heads of organizations bring most of the people from their areas to occupy sensitive positions in the organizations. This has brought a lot of frustration, acrimony, low productivity and lack of sense of belongingness. We have told these agencies that we will fully involve the Federal Character Commission that has all the powers to invoke the particular provisions of the law establishing them to sanction those erring heads of agencies.
We have also that in some areas, where a particular agency is supposed to be under the purview of a particular minister, there is a lot of lopsidedness. For instance if 200 job slots are to be distributed, 100 will go to the minister’s village. As from the beginning of next year, we will enforce the rules and the principle of federal character. We have got the power under the constitutions and the provisions establishing the Federal Character Commission. Our second mandate is to ensure the spread of social amenities and infrastructural facilities all over the country. In conjunction with the Federal Character Commission that is given the direct power to do oversight functions in this respect, we wanted to ensure this, but unfortunately, because of logistics problems, we have not been able to go around. But as from next year, we will go in full force to ensure that there is no concentration of the provision of good roads in certain areas at the expense of other areas because all areas deserve the same provision.
We have gone to the Chief of Army Staff to see their nominal rolls and we have seen a lot of imbalances in some zones. They have explained that to mean that when some people who go for peace mission die, it is difficult to replace them with people from their geopolitical zones. But they have cooperated with us. We are also going to the Nigeria Defence Academy (NDA) to see the type of admissions that have been able to do so that we would know which areas have not been actually taken along. Recently we went to the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), we were not particular about the staff of that organization, but who are the beneficiaries of that funds? We have in mind the Oil and Gas Nigeria Local Content Development Act 2010 which says that we must do everything possible to ensure that Nigerians occupy key positions in oil companies, but we cannot do that without actually preparing these prospective Nigerians with adequate training. We went there and found out that they have spent a lot of money in training Nigerians that would take over from white men. But we want all states of the federation to be considered in terms of training. Each section of the country must also be given the chance to study something about petrochemical engineering so that in the end you have people in that area that can be employed.
What constitutional powers are available to Nigerians to compel enforcement of the principle of federal character in the face of its outright violation?
All these cases may be referred to us. We as a committee have all the powers to enforce compliance with the federal character principle, and the FCC has the power to penalize such infractions. We have the powers to go to all ministries, agencies and parastatals of government. When we went to the Office of the Chief of Army Staff, some people, even members of other committees of the Senate, were saying that we have taken over everything. Our committee is supposed to be the most active and influential committee of the Senate. People are beginning to know that there is a committee they can cry to when there is a problem of that nature, and that is why petitions are coming to us.
The commission has never tried any of these agencies for circumventing federal character principle, and there are complaints of lopsidedness against the commission in terms of appointment and violation of constitutional provisions. What is your committee doing to on this?
We have gone there. It has never happened before that we are not keeping them on their toes.? We have all the complaints against them. We even know how a commissioner can go and sell a slot of over N1 million. It happens everywhere. I don’t want to be specific, but it happens everywhere, go to federal civil service commission, the police, and others. With this, how do we stamp out corruption? The person being asked to bring money will look for all possible means of recouping his/ her money in the service. With what is happening in this country, the situation is hopeless. There is how we can get out of this as long as we continue to go the way we are going now.
As the Senate resolved the recent leadership tussle between the Chairman of the Federal Character Commission, Professor Shaibu Abdulraheem Oba and Commissioner Ari Gwaska?
It is still under investigation. There was a petition received by the Senate and the issue of fair hearing arose, and the matter was referred to our committee for investigation. a draft report is being prepared after which the committee will sit. As of now, Professor Shaibu Abdulraheem Oba is the chairman of the commission. The commissioner representing Nasarawa, Gwaska, is the one sought to be removed by President Goodluck Jonathan.
Why is it that the commission has not been able to sanction anyone who has flouted the federal character principle? Why hasn’t your commission queried this?
We have to find out from the commission. The truth is that it is a commission that has different mandates, but has concentrated just on one mandate which is the third mandate. The second mandate, which is infrastructural development, has not even taken off. The commission is concentrating at the moment on who gets what appointment and are we balancing such. I think it is a challenge to us now as committee over-sighting the commission to activate not only the second, but the third mandates. ?
There is a school of thought that the principle of federal character should be scrapped for limiting our development as a nation by encouraging mediocrity. Do you subscribe to this?
There is no section of this country that does not have qualified people for a particular position. At the same time, in terms of employment and appointment, take the National Hospital as an example. There is no how you can tell them to compromise or lower marks for a particular area. The issue of merit and standard is very sensitive to some disciplines. The committee will never compromise merit and standard on the altar of federal character principle. If we do so, we would be shooting ourselves in the legs. A commissioner of health in cross river once insisted that those to be employed as medical personnel be subjected to tests. She told the governor that she would resign if she was not allowed to ensure that. So, in a nutshell, we must not compromise merit and standard; we must have a threshold for where we want to be. The principle of character can then come in after we may have seen enough people that meet the threshold.
Since the passage of the HAPERDEC amendment act bill, we haven’t seen its implementation? Is HAPERDEC dead?
It is alive and kicking. The problem is the minister of power. After pressure, before the amendment, he had already allocated N100 million in the 2012 budget for the take-off of the HAPPERDEC. Unfortunately, may be the host governor, Governor Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu of Niger State, has not been up and down enough to pressurize the president to put in a management team that would access the money. Nobody can access the money without a management team. We are pressing hard for the bill to come up in the House of Representatives.
Your state, Niger, which used to be a role model for other states, has been in the news for the wrong reasons. After the Boko Haram insurgency stopped there, the state recently had three speakers in one week. What is happening?
What happened what just a total breakdown of communication between the executive and the legislature.
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