Senate goes tough on violators of Federal Character principles

By Haruna Salami

The Senate has warned heads of ministries, departments and agencies who violate federal character principles in employment, promotion, etc to appear before its investigative committee or have themselves to blame.

The chairman Senate Committee on Federal Character and Intergovernmental Affairs, Senator Allwell Onyesoh (Rivers East) gave the indication after the inaugural meeting on “Investigative hearing on the implementation of Federal Character Principles in Nigeria’s public sector” organised by the Senate Committee on Federal Character and Intergovernmental Affairs on Wednesday at the National Assembly, Abuja.

Allwell who expressed disappointment over the absence of some chief executives of some organizations invited for the inaugural meeting, said those whose use the name of the president as an alibi not honour Senate invitations should know that the president is fully in support of what they are doing.

 He also revealed that a new law, which prescribes punishment for infraction of the federal character principles has passed first reading in the National Assembly.

 He said the law “defines how punishment should be meted out. It defines what should be done at the point of infraction. If passed into law, it could mean that even if you have left office and you committed a crime, you will be called back to come and answer. And those who benefited out of that infraction could also be sacked, especially if you didn’t come through the right way.

 Earlier in his contribution, Senator Simon Along (Plateau South) said as a former governor and Director General Tinubu/Shettima campaign organization in 2023, “inclusivity was a cardinal principle during election campaign”, urging all agencies of government to “be very honest”.

Senator Tahir Monguno (Borno North) and Chief Whip of the Senate said the Federal Character Principle was enshrined in our constitution “because of our heterogeneous nature to discourage nepotism”.

 Speaking on behalf of one of the agencies present at the inaugural investigative hearing, Prof. Diya’uddeen Basheer Hassan, who represented the Executive Secretary, National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) thanked the Senate for organizing the hearing.

He tendered the apology of his ES, who was unavoidably absent because he was out of the country at the time of the meeting, hence he stood in for him.

 Prof. Hassan urged the committee to place more emphasis on the need for agencies to be honest at solving the problem rather than punitive measures.

 Senator Allwell thanked the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio for giving the committee 100% backing and also thanked President Tinubu, who he said is aware of the work the Senate is doing.