Federal Character: Senate cautions Buhari against breach of constitution

Senate has cautioned President Muhamnadu Buhari from breaching provisions of the law with non constitution of full membership of the Federal Character Commission, FCC since 2018.

Consequently, it urged President Buhari to immediately constitute the Commission as according to it, not to do so, amounts to a breach of the Act establishing the FCC and the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

Senate’s call for caution was sequel to a submission made to that effect by the Senate Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe (PDP Abia South), who on the strength of orders 42 and 52 of the upper legislative chamber , drew attention of the Senators  to the matter.

Abaribe in the motion titled: “Urgent Need to Reconstitute the Federal Character Commission”, argued that it was unconstitutional for the President not to have appointed a substantive chairman for the Commission since 2018 when tenure of the former chairman lapsed, leading to emergence of an acting chairman steering the ship of the Commission since then.

He added that aside lack  of substantive chairman, the commission also lacks membership of most of the expected commissioners from the 36 states of the federation and the federal capital territory due to expiration of their tenures and none replacements  via appointment by the President.

The commission, he alleged, has since 2018, been under the headship of a sole administrator since 2018 which according to him runs contrary to its establishment Act and relevant provisions of the 1999 Constitution as amended.

Abaribe stated that Section 3(1) of the Act that established FCC, states that the chairman and members of the commission shall hold office for a period of five years in the first instance and for a further term of five years on such terms and conditions as may be specified in their letters of appointment.

He recalled that FCC body has lapsed since 2018 as against its Act, adding that since 2018, the Commission has been run by an acting chairman who has now become a sole administrator.

The Minority Leader maintained that no provisions of the Act or the Constitution stipulates the need for the office of a sole administrator or an acting chairman.

He noted that the FCC has been a tool for unity, equitable formula distribution and good governance of the nation, emphasizing that “failure to reconstitute the commission amounts to a constitutional breach of the act establishing the Federal Character Commission”.

In his remarks after the adoption of prayer of the motion, the Senate President, Dr. Ahmad Lawan said: “The FCC is one of those national tools that work to ensure equity, unity, fairness and Justice in terms of employment distribution across all the 36 states and the FCT.

“It is very important we have the full complement of the commission in place and I believe that with this resolution, it will expedite action by the executive in reconstituting  the membership of the commission”.

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