Posted by Amarachi on Wed 19th Jul, 2023 - tori.ng
The motion was adopted when it was put to a voice vote by the Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu, who presided over the sitting.
The House of Representatives is set to probe the appointments made by the immediate past president, Muhammadu Buhari, during his eight years in office.
The Green chamber passed the resolution during the plenary session on Tuesday following the adoption of a motion sponsored by Paul Nnamchi (Labour Party Enugu State).
During his tenure as president, Buhari was accused by critics of alleged lopsidedness in the appointment of people to head government offices negating the principle of federal character.
But the Buhari administration dismissed the claim at the time, stating that the appointments were based on merits and not on ethnic sentiments.
While moving the motion, the lawmaker said the essence of the federal character principle was to promote national cohesion and equal opportunities.
The lawmaker also claimed that there is a “clash of interests” among the commissioners at the commission which has made the agency abdicate its constitutional and statutory responsibilities.
He said, “Twenty-four years after its constitutional entrenchment, the perception is that there exists brazen domination of the bureaucratic, economic, media, and political posts at all levels by a section of the country at the expense of the others.
“Federal Character Commission has virtually abdicated its constitutional and statutory responsibilities and degenerated into personality clash of interest among its commissioners as was the case about a year ago.”
The motion was adopted when it was put to a voice vote by the Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu, who presided over the sitting.
The House, therefore, resolved to set up an ad hoc committee to investigate the matter among other things.
It also requested the Federal Character Commission to forward the returns on appointments undertaken by ministries, departments and agencies under its jurisdiction between 2015–2023.