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 penultimate 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 session in this concluding part of the interaction
How come in Kwara, the state character is filled with politics because the school of Offa operates basically from a political angle?
That is the story according to someone else. This does not happen only in Kwara, it happens in Benue, Kogi, and all over Nigeria. Seriously speaking, this idea of equity is something that must be voluntarily imbibed internally because there cannot be unity unless we practise equity. Equity is saying that I am my brother’s keeper, and I will do everything to protect you, where there is equity only one condition must remain, that there is availability of opportunity equal for everybody. In fact, we don’t even go to work because your salary is so poor and you are afraid to retire, will you allow anybody to come again and do the job? So, I think it is social re-engineering that we have to do because blaming this on people is not necessary, rather we should look at the insufficiency of resources that we have to share. That is why my second mandate starts here and nobody has asked me about that. It says I should also promote, monitor and enforce equitable distribution of infrastructural facilities and social economic amenities.
The media has consistently shown that in the past one year, the budgetary allocation has been in favour of the President’s state. What is your take on this?
I will not go with a blind support or lack of support. Actually I was full of laughter when the media went agog with the news of how many billions went to Bayelsa and how many came to Kaduna. I said to people, you must take so many things into consideration. Look at the terrain, for instance, if you want to construct one road in Bayelsa you will use that same amount of money to build five in Kaduna because the terrain is filled with water before you have to fill the land first, before doing anything.
Let me give you an example, I have a state office in every state, at the same time we are awarded the contract for Ekiti, Kwara and Bayelsa. Now two came out quickly because we gave them at the same price. We gave to Bayelsa higher because we thought they will need more, but in the end we spent twice more on Bayelsa than we spent on Kwara, yet it was not ready because the place was surrounded by water, and there was nowhere to go. People go there in make-shift bridges and we spent additional N30 to N35 million only to sand-fill the road only from the road to my office. So, if someone spends N3 million, reports will carry that federal government spent N100 million in Bayelsa, but only spent N25, 000 in Kano. The difference is clear. So, instead of quoting money, you rather quote the extent of work done because in Bayelsa you will first buy the water, then turn it into land. In fact, I was joking with the governor when I went to lay the foundation of our office in that state, and I said, ‘Thank you for your donation of water because I have to spend money to sand-fill the land before we can build.’
In Ekiti the land we were given was on the hill. Unknown to us, and when the rains came, erosion was the challenge we face. Of course, we didn’t include that in our estimate when we are building and now somebody will go to the account and say we spent X million in Ekiti, why didn’t you do that in Abeokuta? I think if we get involved in the second mandate, this is the kind of things we should consider, because it is not the amount of money spent, but the quality and quantity of job that is done. If you are supposed to do a 50-kilometre road in Bayelsa and in Sokoto, we cannot say because of the cost in Bayelsa we will do 200-kilometre road in Sokoto because we want to give them equal sum; that is not equity.
I am aware of all this allegations, but I didn’t speak because when I try to explain, they will say, ‘Oh…he is a government agent.’ I am not a government agent, I have had my own job independently and I have not had any interference with anybody since I came into this job. I think if everybody looks at things with my own kind of eyes, we will be better off
What is the second mandate?
We just want to ensure how our laws will be included into the thinking of government budgeting plan so that even when you are planning the budget we know that there is equity in the allocation of projects, not just the allocation of money.
How do you intend to do that?
The constitution says the FCC provides the criteria for achieving this goal just like we have done for the distribution of employment we have done for the distribution of facilities and what you need to do. The law is subject to the approval of the President before work commends. The National Assembly is saying no, and we said ‘go and revise the law,’ but we are already preparing for the day the law will be out. What we have got now is what we called audit of the infrastructural facilities in the country. We want to know what and what, and see where there is a lack, and where there is a preponderance of federal projects, and then be able to intervene in the budget for subsequent years, but we are prepared and once we have the data base for our infrastructural audit. The advantage is that, a lot more people will benefit from it than that which has taken three quarter of our time, it is topical because nobody wants to work with our office but, look at infrastructure for instance, if we agree to follow the FCC principles there will be very little problems in Nigeria in the sense that, that is the one that touches the common man.
What are your major concessions in the implementation of the FCC principles?
Major concession is that some people have insisted deliberately not to understand what the FCC principle means. They insist in confusing it with the quota system which has been over the years, they are not even willing to give us a chance and that very frustrating really. When you explain to people today they will understand, but when they wake up tomorrow, they repeat the same thing. When you complain, they will say is it not this same federal character, as if you have not spoken about it before. In the FCC we know everyone.
Why is that in the leadership of INEC, sometimes you see a preponderance of people from a particular area?
That doesn’t bother me because when you are saying there is a preponderance of Benue in INEC I can see preponderance in another area. So it is a balance of state ,but in the federal character we know each one and ensure that overall, nobody is acting deliberate.
What is your take on the opening of so many universities in states?
It is a very healthy development because education is every body’s right, and if you want to progress in a society, it is very crucial to educate the people first. Forget whether they will have job or not that is another thing entirely, because we must challenge government to create jobs. Rome was not built in a day, we will have problems in some places, but it is all going to be good. I have midwife two universities in recent time one state and one private, if they are not strong they will die a natural death, but if they are strong they will continue to produce. For me, an educated jobless person is more acceptable to me than an illiterate jobless and person so give them education.
When you were the Vice Chancellor of University of Ilorin, 44 lectures were sacked. What really is the cause?
I don’t take nonsense because if you are patriotic, you must be angry with what is happening in Nigeria. There were more than a 100 lecturers that I sacked in Ilorin, the 44 you said was just an administrative error of the registrar, otherwise they would have gone the other way. It was an error in the letter they gave them the point is, the University of Ilorin has not gone on strike since September 1998 up till today. When I was the VC, I discovered the Head of Department of Accounting has no degree in anything, not to talk of Accounting, and he was the head of the department and they kept him there. The Dean of Law was a Professor of Geography, and then when I removed those people, they said, ‘No, he is removing Muslims, he is removing Christians.’ There were really terrible things going on then at the university. If you have my kind of background and training, you will be angry. People misunderstood me, but later they got to realise that I was actually doing the right thing, not because of self-righteousness, but because I believe in this country. I believe that we must sacrifice everything that we have to build a society where our children can live in the future. If I acted tough; it does not mean I am not a good person. I have children and when I go home, in fact before I get down from the car, I have to remove my agbada before I get down from the car because the children will all run to play with me. It’s like that, what has to be done must be done.
Have you tried to envisage what you would do after this service? Would you imagine yourself going back to the classroom again?
I am 65 years going on 66, what more do I want to prove to anybody? I have done my own best in the education sector, but in 5-10 years from now I don’t know, I am only been realistic, but I know that anything I do; it should be something I can account for when I go back. I won’t be redundant after I leave this office. If I don’t go back to this work tomorrow, there is a lot of community work for me to do at home. I know I have gathered a lot of good will in my community so they would rather that am home doing some community work than coming to Abuja and live in a two bedroom flat, I would rather serve my community.
Does the community work mean going back to be the governor of Kwara?
There are many ways to kill a rat. I don’t have to help Kwara by being the governor. I wanted to be a governor then, because I thought I had a sense of mission. I don’t have to be a governor to help my people, but if at a time you feel that is the best thing to do, you try it and, as far as am concerned, there is nothing wrong with trying and I wasn’t defeated I was zoned out. I was prepared for anything at the time I was going for politics, I couldn’t have been disappointed. That was why when I was zoned out, I still became DG for the campaign team of the PDP; I didn’t go and raise an army against them because I know I still could achieve a lot of things even within the system.
Looking at all what is happening in Nigeria, do you have the optimism that we might get things right in the future?
I am an optimist by orientation, and I believe that tomorrow can always be better. All countries have been challenged; in fact some has been more challenged than Nigeria and Nigerian also have been more challenged than many. I believe that Nigeria can survive if you and I, according to Achebe, can sweep our own corner of the nation, sweep it clean. By the time we are all done, we will have a clean environment. I am inspired by persons who put all their wits into this enterprise, I am particularly happy that I have the opportunity of working in two places, in the university and in the community that is determined.
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