The Chairman of the Federal Character Commission (FCC), Professor Shuaibu Oba AbdulRaheem, and some commissioners from the commission were guests of the Editorial Board of Blueprint roundtable last week where he answered questions on issues of recruitment in various government organisations. The chairman said that until now, the military did not comply with the rules of recruitments and promotions as quoted in the guideline principles of the FCC. ENE OSANG recounts the highlights of the interaction

What are the principles of the Federal Character Commission?

The Federal Character Principle is the product of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It's coming on board as a constitutional matter actually predates the establishment of the Federal Character Commission itself. If you will recall the intervention of the military in the polity in the 60s, there have been all kinds of opinion about the nation and its continued existence as one united, indivisible political entity. I also recommend that Nigeria is a society made up of many languages, most of which religion and culture brought together by history. The fact that we have become Nigeria is a reality, but the thing now is how to keep these disparate parts together and work with them into one sustainable country. The first time during the 1975 constitutional parley under late Murtala, the concept of the federal character was first introduced into national discourse, meaning as defined in the constitution a distinctive characteristics of Nigeria as a nation recognising various components, of course, if we are to live together, whatever system we want to adopt must take cognisance of that and this went on until the Constitutional Conference of 1994 -1995 but before then, the idea of the federal character crept into the 1979 constitution mentioned there as the distinctive attribute that makes the Nigerian states.

It didn't go beyond mere statement of the intent and a wish basket sort of because there was no way it could be enforced in law therefore the challenge to the 1994, 1995 constitution conference was how to now make these part of the constitution justiciable, enforceable as they say, the idea of the Federal Character Commission is to enable equitable distribution of both our human and natural resources which has been stated in chapter 14 of the constitution as saying the equitable distribution of bureaucratic political appointments on the one hand and equitable distribution of infrastructural facilities and social economic amenities on the other hand. That was when the idea of establishing the commission as the instrument for the implementation of the federal character came into being; so that is how far the journey has been and I think I have tried to, while observing the main reasons for the coming into existence of the federal character.

  Now the often asked question a lot of it has come out as a result of misinformation, lack of information or sheer deliberate mischief on the part of some people. There is a deliberate effort to confuse the federal character principle to what they have designed as quota system. These two concepts have crept into our political and social political lives in the 1960's, of course, the quota system was badly abused and rejected by Nigerians because it was thought that it was arbitrary in its concept and its implementation. Again if you permit the idea of quota system emerge from the same concern, which gave birth to the Federal Character Commission at the twilight of colonial rule in Nigeria, the colonial authorities knew that they were leaving behind components being put into a delicate structure call Nigeria for a civil administration.

But the quota system emphasises mainly number figures, not the equality of persons, but the idea got on after independence and, in the absence of any other thing in our vocabulary, that became something to use and the quota system became so badly abused because it has no room explicitly for merit. Now when the idea of the Federal Character cropped in, it looked to some people like it wore the colour of the quota, but again quota is operated based on the concept of equality of groups

There is a difference between the federal character principles. The federal character main tenet was on equitable distribution, proportional representation of various groups, like an egalitarian system which is from each to each, according to his resources and need. Ultimately this is how the Federal Character Commission ought to work so that each one has a stake in the project Nigeria, and each one has an equal opportunity to be a Nigerian, and have access to the resources that we have.

Some have argued that the FCC is only out to favour certain parts of the country. In which way will you reassure Nigerians that there is equitable distribution?

The constitution has defined the powers of the commission, but before I go into that, I think people who are die-hard believers that the federal character is quota and it has nothing to do with merit or demerit, I think we must get it clear that the commission is not a recruitment agency, we do not employ people; we only oversee and regulate the distribution of persons employed.

The employing authorities, that is the MDAs and the civil service commissions have their own guidelines on recruitment, and they determine what qualifications you should get before applying for a particular position. The federal character has never interfered with any employer, who wants to insist on a particular way. For instance, the University of Benin wrote to say as a policy in that University they give employment to only persons who graduate with first class, and we said, "Okay, all we want to do is to have a record of this, go ahead and recruit them." If you say an organisation wants to recruit and I tell how the federal character principles work, in a familiar territory to me, for example university admissions. Everybody knows that to get an admission into university in Nigeria and to study any course, you must have at least five credits in relevant subjects including Mathematics and English. Once you obtain five credits, it is adjudged that you are qualified and you have a minimum qualification to pursue any course of study in Nigeria.

In a situation where we must be our brothers' keepers, we cannot give all the people who have nine credits to a particular family and leave those who have just five. So, there is meritocracy which determines the minimum qualification, and once you have that the rest will be in numbers.  Even before I became the chairman of FCC, I have always argued and maintained a position about merit. Merit is a question and a matter of who is using statistics for what.

What will you say about the allegation that the commission takes slots and looks the other way while due process is not followed in recruiting by some government agencies?

The Nigerian factor rears its head in everything, because an average person is born deficient morally and nobody's deficiency has been discovered until one person has been caught. I think it is sheer nonsense to say that the commission takes slots in order to look the other way while people are being recruited.

Slots for what? If you come to the Federal Character Commission, we have 37 commissioners, one for each of the 36 states and one for the FCT. So if any organisation comes and says, "Look, you are the regulatory authority, I want to recruit 2,000 people," I will ask the organisation for their minimum requirement and then ask the commissioners to get people for the positions. This means we have made the people to comply with the commission's system. So, if such a thing comes I don't see any corrupt influence in that. My commissioners by law and standards do not go out soliciting for slots.

But if the slots are given, do you have the right to take them?

Except, in an instance, that we have an organisation that says, "We do not have any applicant from zone one for this job." Of course, when they ask us to help them source for somebody from that zone, then I will tell my commissioner from that particular zone to send information to his governor asking if there is anyone with such qualifications available.  Let me give you an example, quality or lack of it is not endemic or native of any part of this country, educational advancement or otherwise that is also not lacking in any part of Nigeria. The most disadvantaged educationally parts of Nigeria could be Lagos, Ebonyi Rivers or Bayelsa state. If you are talking about federal character being for a particular people, it's only for the reason of protecting them and not let them to be left out in the scheme of things. What we do in the commission is keep our eyes open so that we see those who are likely to be the victims of "grab all" mentality by some people, because in all parts of the country we can get any qualification for any available position. The idea of slot is not the actual way you thought it is like. Currently there are a lot of orthopaedic hospitals in Yaba, and we encourage all institutions to have this national consciousness in its recruitment, have a national mix and when we saw their list, we said in a vacant position get somebody from Bauchi or Bayelsa to join those in Lagos so that they can work together so there is positive discrimination in some cases, but that is only healthy for the kind of job we do at the commission.

Let me draw your attention to the latest promotions in the army where some promotions have been going on and some states are favoured than the others. Does your power extend to the army and what are you doing about this?

Yes, our power does extend to the army and even to the media. If you look at the constitution, every organisation that the federal government has a stake in. The FCC's powers extend to them, that is the bottom line, but the point at which the federal character principle becomes an entry point for job recruitment, for fresh appointment for fresh graduates, that is where we keep all our eyes open for equity, but once you get employed, you must comply with the rules and regulations of the system and must be able to cope with all the challenges there and prove your own strength to your employer.

If in a particular organisation there are available vacancies for six directors for instance, there is no way that we can say all the directors should go to one part, we have six geo-political zones and all must be represented in such positions. We don't insist it has to be from a particular state, but if there is need to get 36 directors, then, we have to get one from each of the 36 states on the other hand. If we have just two positions, we take one from the north and one from the south from any group of the states. So our concern is at the entry and management point. When you want to go beyond director it becomes a political issue and we have equivalent of directors in all organisations I think in the army a director is a Colonel.

In the civil life we look at an organisation and see the spread of its staff and we encourage them to maintain equity. So when it reaches the level of getting a director nobody will say we cannot find any qualified person from a particular place. So what people do to get promotions depends on the internal culture of the organisation where they work and that is the issue of meritocracy where nobody will promote anybody if there is no merit and nobody will deny anybody promotions, except if you want to be on merit and all the bright people are from a particular place, but even at that if, for instance, there is vacancy for six directors, we cannot have more than two directors from one place.

The military is another special observation. Of course, the whole idea of federal character, which is the idea of quota system, began from them and the military and the Federal Civil Service have always put this together, but their mentality is different from ours and they still do not understand what federal character means. They feel it means giving equally to everybody, but federal character does not operate based on equality but equity; there is a difference between the two. The way we work in the federal character is that we ask for your nominal role and we see the spread and distribution of staff according to states of origin.

We know those that have over representation, under representation and adequate representation. If you now want to do another recruitment, we encourage you to go and deal with larger numbers for the underrepresented, and give fewer numbers to those that are over represented and adequate represented so that in the end, we can build the confidence and the trust of the other less advantaged people into the openness of the system and participation of the Nigerian principle.