Daily Independent Online.
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Wednesday, July 21, 2004.
Ministers to face prosecution over
federal character violation
By Tom Chiahemen
Senior
Correspondent, Abuja
The Federal Character Commission (FCC) has
threatened to prosecute ministers and heads of government agencies if they fail to reflect federal
character in staff recruitments and promotion as well as the distribution of
socio-economic infrastructure.
FCC Communication and Broadcasting
Committee Chairman, Joel
Ogunrinola, handed down the warning on Tuesday and described as
“unfounded and unjustifiable” the commonly held view, particularly
in the South, that the federal character principle encourages mediocrity.
“Federal character does not in any
way compromise merit,” he insisted.
He and other members of the commission
visited Communications Minister, Cornelius Adebayo, in Abuja where he reminded
heads of ministries and other agencies of the provision that indigenes of each
state “shall constitute not less than 2.5 per cent and not more than 3.0
per cent of the total work force of any federal establishment,” with a
minimum of one per cent reserved for indigenes of the Federal Capital
Territory.
Ogunrinola said the cry of marginalisation
and neglect by some ethnic groups in the distribution of posts, infrastructure
and socio-economic resources highlights a significant national problem.
Efforts made at various times in the past
to package a system of administration that would engender national confidence
and peace could not achieve much until the constitutional conference of
1994-1995 - whose recommendations led to the
promulgation of the FCC by Decree 34 of 1996 as subsumed in the Constitution.
In carrying out its function of working out modalities and
schemes for redressing the problems of imbalance and reducing the fear of
marginalisation, the commission seeks the equitable distribution of posts and
socio-economic amenities in all the states and the FCT.
