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Govt agencies face prosecution

•As FCC intensifies awareness campaign

From STEVE UZOECHI, Owerri.

SEVERAL Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) at both the Federal and State level may face prosecutions by the Federal Character Commission (FCC), if they continue to ignore or contravene the Federal Character Guidelines and Formulae of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

This was disclosed by Barrister Mathew Odusanya, the Director, Legal and Enforcement Department of the FCC, Abuja.

He made the disclosure while presenting a paper at the two-day workshop on the “Implementation of the Federal Character Guidelines and Formulae”, organized by the Imo State Office of the Federal Character Commission, for Local Government officials in Imo State.

Odusanya urged participants to appreciate the principles of federal character as a constitutional and legal device aimed at preventing anarchy, stabilizing the polity, fostering national unity and giving every citizen of Nigeria, a sense of belonging.

While arguing that all over the world, the question of equitable deployment and allocation of a nation's resources amongst its populace has always been a sensitive and contentious issue, Odusanya traced the conflicts in countries like Congo Democratic Republic, Sudan, Somali, Sri Lanka and the Philippines to the feeling of alienation or exclusion in the distribution of the resources of the affected countries.

Adding that the Niger Delta crisis in Nigeria started as a simple agitation for a more equitable system of resource distribution before it assumed the current alarming dimension.

He therefore stressed that FCC would not take for granted any political or administrative action that seeks to drag Nigeria into similar conflict through the insensitivity or ignorance of any government ministry , department or agencies in the deployment and allocation of the nation's human and material resources.

Odusanya informed the participants that within the last one year, over a dozen Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) have been investigated and summoned to appear before the commission.

Most of these MDAs, he said, have taken their corrections and adjusted their administrative procedures while several others are currently under investigation and face the risk of persecution and imprisonment.
Meanwhile,in his welcome address, the Federal Commissioner representing Imo State in the Federal Character Commissions, Abuja, Hon. Meziem N. Echefu, stressed that the Federal Character Principles, while emphasizing equity and fairness, encourages and insists on merit.

He noted that the law establishing the Federal Character Commission empowers it, among others,“to enforce compliance with its guidelines and formulae in areas of the provision of employment opportunities, distribution of infrastructural facilities, socio-economic amenities and other indices”.

Echefu, therefore noted that the essence of the workshop is to create awareness on these guidelines and formulae to the top officers of the Local Government councils who directly implement government policies and programmes at the grassroots for the propagation of good governance.