Mark tasks govt on equity, transparency over federal characterFORMER Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, and the erstwhile Governor of Lagos State, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, yesterday urged Nigerians to rise up to save the nation's judiciary from compromise and subsequent collapse.Also, Senate President David Mark yesterday stressed the need for civil servants to entrench equity, justice and transparency towards ensuring the federal character principle as enshrined in Section 14 of the 1999 Constitution.Buhari and Tinubu, who spoke at the 2011 Leadership Conference and Awards organised by the Leadership Newspapers in Abuja, said that the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was intimidating the Judiciary and wanted to have the third arm of government under its control.They warned that except the public cried out, the ruling PDP might succeed in turning the rule of law from inalienable right to a tradable item that only the party owned and controlled.According to Buhari who bagged the newspaper's 'Politician of the year award, ' for democracy to be stabilised in this country, the Judiciary, which serves as the last hope of the common-man, must be given a free hand to operate, and be free of any influence.The elder statesman, who condemned the way the former President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Isa Salami was removed, said that Nigerians must stand to ensure that the Judiciary was not compromised.'Justice Salami was kicked out and they have replaced him with another person. We need to ensure that the Judiciary is not compromised. If this is done, we are finished and this democracy will not survive', he said.Buhari stressed the need for Nigeria to take concrete steps that would enable it realise its potential.In his address, Tinubu, who also was the newspaper's 'Person of the year', warned that the nation's democracy was in danger, adding that instead of learning from good democratic lessons from Judicial overturning of its electoral violations, the ruling party now seemed to overturn the impartiality of the Judiciary, adding that the opposition would uphold the rule of law.He said: 'They sacrificed one of Nigeria's fairest jurists to send a blunt message to other jurists that if you go against our wishes, you will lose those robes you hold so dear. If such a thing can befall so senior a jurist, what hope do others have' Our courts have become islands of confusion as judges balance their conscience against their careers. We will petition the courts to follow the law and make sure courts act independently.'Tinubu, who advocated fiscal federalism, alleged that under the Excess Crude Account, the Federal Government siphoned funds constitutionally meant for states.Stressing that the Excess Crude Account and the Sovereign Wealth Fund were illegal and unconstitutional, Tinubu said: 'They will use it to siphon money and deprive you of developmental programme. The Excess Crude is an illegal account. Are you saying that you are saving for the rainy day when it is already flooding''The former governor called for a new revenue allocation formula that would be fair as well as allow the rapid development of each state.The ACN chieftain kicked against the single term of six years being proposed by President Goodluck Jonathan and urged Nigerians to resist it just as they resisted the third term agenda.He said: ' It would give room to fraud, a politician can say, I know that I am not coming back, I will steal as much as possible. It is a clear part to disintegration because six years itself is enough to create a dictator.'Mark spoke at the inauguration of the Federal Character and Inter-Governmental Affairs Committee chaired by Senator Dahiru Aawaisu Kuta representing Niger East Senatorial District.The Senate President noted that since the Federal Character Principle was not designed to promote mediocrity, there should be transparency and equity in the distribution of national resources.'The idea of federal character is not to promote mediocrity. There is no part of this country where they do not have qualified people for any position. The essence of federal character is for national unity and integration. The operators of the federal character principle have to be very transparent.'Those who feel that it is aimed at eliminating some parts of the country are wrong. Promotion should be on merit, irrespective of where one is coming from. There should also be equity in the distribution of the limited resources we have. Equity, justice and fairness must be the watchword of this committee', he said.Earlier, in his opening remarks, committee chairman Kuta told stakeholders gathered at the Hearing Room 3, venue of the inauguration that the Federal Character Commission would soon be empowered to nullify all appointments not in conformity with Nigeria's federal character principle.He also added that recruitments in such defaulting federal institutions would equally be suspended.His words: 'Justice, peace, equity and fairness certainly cannot thrive in an atmosphere where people feel that their genuine yearnings and aspirations cannot be attained and where they feel their potential cannot be explored.'The Federal Character Commission was established through an Act in 1966 and was equally entrenched in Section 14 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended. You are all aware that non-compliance with these principles is a punishable offence under the Act establishing the commission.'We, therefore, suggest that the commission should be empowered to declare null and void, any recruitment exercise or appointment carried out or made by any government establishment or authority in contravention of the approved guidelines and formula; suspend any recruitment process which is being conducted in a manner inconsistent with the guidelines and formula worked out by the commission as well as enforce the federal character principle in any company where government has shareholding interest.'Other committees that were inaugurated yesterday included Federal Capital Territory, Ethics and Privileges, Foreign Affairs as well as Gas.At the inauguration at the Foreign Affairs Committee, Mark called for a review of Nigeria's bilateral and multilateral agreements in line with global trends.He also urged government to withdraw any foreign mission that fails to meet the objective for which it was set up.
Click here to read full news..
