By Christiana Ekpa
The Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Federal Character, Hon Idris Wase, has said that the Committee will work towards ensuring that the composition of the government agencies reflect the federal character to promote national unity.
Wase, who gave the assurance at the inaugural meeting of the Committee in Abuja, said it will be diligent in its oversight to ensure there is equitable distribution of employment across the country.
He said 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 Tuesday to brief on its level of compliance in the equitable spread of employment across board.
He said, “We will only do justice and continue to do the right thing I want to say that we should take this as 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.
He said, “This the main thrust of our own committee and our function does not just end at the national level, and this is where now 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. “
