Federal character principles is one of the means devised by the government of Nigeria to prevent the predominance of persons from a few states or ethnic groups in the political and economic governance of the federation.
Due to the importance of the implementation of the Federal Character principle in the country, the framers of the constitution ensured the creation of a commission charged with the responsibility of implementing the principle by ensuring that the composition of the government of Nigeria reflects the Federal Character of Nigeria.
This principle which is one of the autochthonous features of the country as a federation became formally institutionalised in 1979 when the framers of the defunct 1979 constitution introduced it into the Nigerian corpus juns.
However, the Buhari administration knowing fully well that the utility of the Federal Character principles has been marred and mired by its poor implementation over the years decided to introduce some reform.
The reforms in the implementation of the Federal Character principles implementation which is necessitated by its change mantra geared towards making things work needed a strong institution created by the constitution to superintend its implementation and enforcements and that led to the appointment of Dr Muheeba Dankaka as the chairman of the Federal Character Commission (FCC).
The Buhari administration mandated her to ascertain the implementation and enforcements of the Federal Character principles in the political and economic governance of the country so as to ascertain the reasons why the principles is more honoured in breach than in observance.
Dr Muheeba Dankaka, on assumption of duties at the commission, quickly embarked on a well thought out study and research and the research methodology adopted by her to reach her conclusions and ways to change the FCC narratives was purely doctrinal whereas the approach employed by her were chiefly analytical, descriptive and prescriptive.
This led to her simple conclusion that some sets of reforms are needed for implementation to get the commission on track if it would ever get the right antidote against its hitherto known persistent abuse by previous administrations in the country.
Prior to her appointment, the government found out that the principle of the federal character enacted into law was subject to persistent abuse and this led to the appointment of Dr Muheeba Dankaka as the chairman of the FCC to systematically and pragmatically introduce reforms to correct this abuse.
She quickly identified the defects in the implementation of our federal character laws that would justificiably lead to the enforcing compliance of the implementations of the law.
Two years on as the head of the Federal Character Commission (FCC), Dr Muheeba Dankaka knowing fully well that what was needed was reforms to ensure compliance.
The federal character system to her is a means of ensuring equal distribution of roles and appointments in Nigeria’s public service and she has implemented reforms like the creation of a centralised department of monitoring and compliance to serve as an ombudsman for the FCC laws’ full implementations.
Dankaka has implemented several other reforms geared towards its holistic implementation as its successes as served as a catalyst for Nigeria’s unity and greatness and not for its weakening. Going forward, she knows and acknowledge the seriousness with which President Muhammadu Buhari and indeed take the deliverance of the mandate given to her considering its seriousness in addressing the question of the country’s unity.
Finally, many are of the view that she has largely succeeded so far in her assignment of putting the commission back on track as the ombudsman for the institutionalisation of the Nations federal character ethos.
Today, the FCC is summing up the strength of our country because the strength of our country lies in its diversity.
Diversity of our country is not a weakness but its strength because out of the plurality of our people, she is working towards building one nation and the maintenance of its strength and the use of it for the fulfilments of the purposes of the state directives, policies, programme and its projects of the Buhari administration in terms of oversight.
– Musa Wada writes from Abuja.
