Buhari

Buhari’s Appointments: Between Federal Character And Meritocracy

Kofoworola Ayodeji

The cold war between “federal-characterists”—a group of Nigerians who firmly believe in the principle that ethnic, religious and geographic diversity must be given due consideration before appointments are made into the various public office institutions and “meritocracists”—those Nigerians who strongly posit that competence rather than state of origin or religion should be the deciding factor when appointments are made, actually reached the climax on Thursday when president Buhari made six key appointments.

Within the past few days, both traditional and social media have been inundated with protests on the recent appointments. It has been extensively argued that northerners, at the expense of southerners, have dominated the 29 key appointments that have been made so far. It has been reported that “only 25 per cent of the president’s appointments are from the south while an overwhelming 75 per cent are the north.”

Why Federal Character and Not Competence?

In my opinion, I think what is more important at this point is fixing Nigeria. To do this, there is need to look beyond ethnic or religious sentiments and therefore focus on competence. Ethnicity has tainted every bit of what we do as a people. Politicians have exploited it to divide Nigerians and gain votes. Sacrificing federal character principle for competence has taken Nigeria nowhere and if we continue to latch onto it, we sure are going nowhere in our journey to nationhood.

Even though many people have argued that there are as many competent Nigerians in one region as another; however, one should not throw away a fact that there would always be the most competent person—in terms of knowledge, skills and experience— at every point in time for a particular appointment. To put that in perspective, imagine that Mr A, B and C are being considered for a particular post. Based on merit, Mr B obviously stands out as the man who is most qualified to do the job but he’s from a particular region of the country. Should he then be dropped, while Mr A or C is chosen, because his region is perceived to be dominating the government? That’s, without mincing words, is very suicidal and counter-productive for any nation that desire to move forward.

What Nigerians Should Do

In as much as the federal character principle was designed to ensure the balance of power among all regions in the country, it shouldn’t rob the country of very capable hands in running the government. I have observed that almost, if not all, appointments that have been made by president Buhari are on merit. In times past, appointments were given to loyalists and/or party members who have failed in one endeavor or the other. For instance, a man who failed to clinch the governorship ticket of his party was compensated with a ministerial post just to appease him and also douse tension within their party.

Such trends have damaged Nigeria beyond measure. Hence, fixing it should be our priority. Whether the person that will fix a particular problem is from the north or south, it doesn’t matter. Rather, we must focus on performance and transparency of all the public officials irrespective of where they come from. Nigerians should ask questions like: “Is Nigeria better off since the appointment of this official?” “Is the sector into which he or she has been appointed more efficient and transparent?”

One is not saying that president Buhari should marginalize any part of the country, but I believe it’s damn too early to come to a conclusion that his appointments are one-sided. To me, that’s a lot of distraction for the Buhari-led administration. Notably, Ministers, ambassadors, heads of government departments are yet to be appointed.

President Should Take Note of This

The president should continue to make merit-based appointments and also ensure that no region of the country is sidelined. He should start laying the foundation for a nation that prefers competence and excellence to any form of sentiment. To put Nigeria on the path of nationhood, there must be a new way of doing things— in this case, there is need to change the way appointments are made: they should be strictly based on competence, not on compensating political jobbers or a region of the country.

If there must be genuine unity in the country, Nigerians must look beyond the federal character and embrace meritocracy. The use of federal character principle or law, as enshrined in the Third Schedule of the 1999 constitution, has done more harm than good. It has only succeeded in breaking rather than building the nation. So far we have appointees who are round pegs in round holes, their religious and ethnic affiliations shouldn’t really count. Or else, we would continue to live in our past. God bless Nigeria!