There has been an uproar about ‘lopsided appointments’ to ministerial positions in the present federal government. Even the Sultan of Sokoto joined other Nigerian commentators in lamenting that “Nigeria is disunited because of lopsided appointments.”[1] These critics imply that there will be peace and progress in Nigeria, when there is ‘equal’ representation of the different regions in the appointments.[2] This is like hoping that there will be liberty and progress in a prison, if there is an equal representation of different groups among the prison guards and warders. Nigerians are distracted by the appointees’ regional distribution that they forget the goal of federal character in Nigeria.
The basic structure of the Nigerian society and governance was designed and installed by the British.[3] This design is intended to sustain the British access to the Nigerian politics and resources.[4] Today, this claim is manifested in the Nigerian Mineral and Mining Act and its draining effect in Nigeria.
“… all lands in which minerals have been found in Nigeria and any area covered by its territorial waters or constituency and the Exclusive Economic Zone shall, from the commencement of this Act be acquired by the Government of the Federation…”[5] “No person shall search for or exploit mineral resources in Nigeria or divert or impound any water for the purpose of mining except as provided in this Act.”[6] “The property in mineral resources shall pass from the Government to the person by whom the mineral resources are lawfully won, upon their recovery in accordance with this Act.”[7]
Following the restrictions of this Act, Nigerian engineers do not have access to the mineral resources they require for productivity. These engineers cannot practice the real production they learnt in school without access to mineral resources. Instead, the federal government sells[8] these mineral resources to foreign companies in exchange for foreign goods and services. The money realized from mineral resources is used by the government to pay government officials and provide foreign infrastructure among others.
What is the purpose of appointees?
Normally, societies are formed by the agreement of different people in a specific location to live and work together. They agree to collaborate in using their various resources to satisfy their needs. Hence, they distribute the different functions of social regulation to enable people in the society to contribute in the various sectors of the society’s security and industry. People are efficient in various sectors of the society are often assigned to coordinate the operations in those sectors.
Unfortunately, in Nigeria, the function of ministry appointees is mainly to supervise the seizing and sale of mineral resources, and to share money, goods and services from the sale of mineral resources. For after seizing and selling the people’s resources, government claims the responsibility of catering for the people. Hence, they create ministries for distributing the resource-money in form of salaries, handouts, services and infrastructure to the different parts of the country.
What is meant by federal character?
Federal character is a principle of balancing appointments to federal civil service and military based on state of origin.[9] It is a government practice of distributing federal appointments to include people from every state in the federation. “The ‘federal character’ principle, which has been enshrined in Nigeria’s Constitution since 1979, seeks to ensure that appointments to public service institutions fairly reflect the linguistic, ethnic, religious, and geographic diversity of the country.”[10][11]
What is the downside of the federal character?
Some people argue that it amounts to a confused balancing of the merit principle and the quota system, based on states of origin.[12] Hence, it leads to the sacrifice of merit and the enthronement of mediocrity.
Second, every part of the federation is affected by the restrictions of the Nigerian Mineral and Mining Act.[13] Engineers from the different parts of Nigeria are to sacrifice their productive capabilities for a ‘national’ foreign exchange. In return, the government compensates the most exposed set from the different groups with appointments, to hold them from revolting. Hence, like tokenism, this federal character is a gag on the mouth of the few vocal people that can cause trouble in the sharing scheme. Whatever they are paid is a distraction from the productive opportunities of their own people.
From the foregoing, it is obvious that federal character is an institutionalization of a sharing mentality, over efforts for actual productivity. Government confiscates the resources that your people should use to produce machines for agriculture, auto-mobile, clothes and other things. In return, they appoint few people from your region to participate in sharing foreign and inflated goods and infrastructure.
Those who insist that federal character – equal distribution of federal appointments – will bring true peace to Nigeria may be mistaken. Federal character may bring a superficial peace among the elite class of the different parts of the country. It can ensure that the ‘elite-class’ obtain some shares from the sale of the different communities’ resources. The elite-class will therefore control their different regions with frivolous gifts, force or deceit to comply with the sharing formula.
However, without the people’s ownership and use of their resources for industry, hunger and poverty will continue to ravage the people. From hunger and poverty, they will resort to crimes and eventually revolution against the elite-class. This is why the secessionist orators will easily identify the people’s hunger and poverty in challenging the status-quo and its federal character. For no amount of sharing can contain people’s inability to produce what they need. And nobody will truly care about federal character, if individuals and ethnic communities own and use their resources for production.
Who benefits from federal character? Foreign companies, government officials and civil servants. Who suffers in federal character? All the citizens who could have utilized their resources for producing what they need instead of depending on foreign goods that are obtained and shared from their resources.
[1] Sa’ad Abubakar, “Lopsided appointments responsible for disunity in Nigeria” In Politics Nigeria by John Saleh Aminu 9th November, 2017 https://politicsngr.com/2017/11/09/lop-sided-appointments-responsible-disunity-nigeria-sultan-sokoto/
[2] ibid
[3] S. O. Oyedele, “Federalism in Nigeria” in Issues contemporary political economy of Nigeria (edited) Hassan A. Saliu, op.cit, p.57
[4] Cf. Ibid
[5] Nigerian minerals and mining act 2007 act no. 20, chapter 1, Part 1, Section 1, paragraph 2
[6] Nigerian minerals and mining act 2007 act no. 20, chapter 1, Part 1, Section 2, paragraph 1
[7] Nigerian minerals and mining act 2007 act no. 20, chapter 1, Part 1, Section 1, paragraph 3
[8] Nigerian minerals and mining act 2007 act no. 20, chapter 1, Part 1, Section 1, paragraph 3
[9] Cf. Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2011 as amended, Section 14, subsection 3,4
[10] Ladipo Adamolekun, John Erero, Basil Oshionebo; “Federal Character” and Management of the Federal Civil Service and the Military, Publius: The Journal of Federalism, Volume 21, Issue 4, 1 January 1991, Pages 75–88, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.pubjof.a037980
[11] Cf. Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2011 as amended, Section 14, subsection 3,4
[12] Ibid
[13] Nigerian minerals and mining act 2007 act no. 20, chapter 1, Part 1, Section 1, paragraph 2