SUPER EAGLES VICTORY AND NIGERIA'S QUOTA SYSTEM
By: Law Mefor
So, the ‘Super Eagles of Biafra’ eventually won the AFCON championship? Many had accused the head coach, Stephen Okechukwu Keshi of taking only the ‘Igbo boys’ to the tournament. Keshi would have gone to the gallows for hatching such a team when he had over 250 ethnic groups to pick from. His family also hinted that Keshi may not really stay and the reason may not be far from such insistence on an unproductive quota system that has long sacrificed merit to under develop Nigeria.
The victory is such a welcome distraction and relief however temporal from the agony that Nigerians are going through in the face of brazen misgovernment.
Can Nigerians learn from the Super Eagles exploit that what the nation needs is not quota system (especially as it is implemented today) but our best hands even if they are to be found in a single family. Quota system may be good but it ought to set for itself an irreducible minimum standards and strictly enforce it, which if a state cannot meet, at the time, it misses it until it is better prepared. This could promote a healthy competition among the states as they prepare their citizens to qualify to fill federal posts. This does not happen as states can get the posts, qualified or not.
Quota system and federal character is an essential inclusive policy that is aimed at carrying every part of the polity along as a federal system. But like every good policy and programme in Nigeria, implementation has always been too bad. Federal character does not mean merit and standard should be sacrificed on the alter of mediocrity but that is what its implementation has become in Nigeria.
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. A source sadly observed that application of the principle in the federal civil service and the military has amounted to a confused balancing of the merit principle and the quota system, based essentially on states of origin. This has had adverse consequences for both institutions in terms of discipline, morale, and overall effectiveness and efficiency.
In exercise of the powers conferred on it by section 4 (1) (a) of the Federal Character Commission (Establishment, Etc.) Decree No. 34 1996, the Federal Character Commission prescribes some guiding principles and formulae specified for the distribution of all cadres of posts in all services throughout the federation.
Guiding principles and formulae are both noble and comprehensive:
1. Each state of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory shall be equitably represented in all national constitutions and in public enterprises and organizations.
2. The best and most competent persons are recruited from each state of the Federation to fill positions reserved for the indigenes of that state or the Federal Capital Territory.
3. Once a candidate has attained the necessary minimum requirement for appointment to a position, he shall qualify to fill a relevant vacancy reserved for indigenes of his state or the Federal Capital Territory.
4. Where the number of positions available cannot go round the states of the Federation or the Federal Capital Territory, the distribution shall be on zonal basis but in the case where two positions are available, the positions shall be shared between the northern zones and the southern zones.
5. Where the indigenes of a state or the Federal Capital Territory are not able to take up all the vacancies meant for them the indigenes of any state(s) or the Federal Capita Territory within the same zone shall be given preference in filling such vacancies. Provided that where the zone to which the preference is given fails to take up such vacancy the indigenes from any other zone shall be considered for the appointment.
6. Each states shall produce 2.75 per cent of the total work force in any Federal establishment while the Federal establishment while the Federal Capital Territory shall produce 1 percent for the indigenes of the Federal Capital Territory provided that the Commission may adopt a range so that the indigenes of any state of the Federation shall not constitute less than the lower limit or more than the upper limit of the range as set out in paragraph 12(a).
7. In the case of distribution on Zonal basis the Commission shall adopt another range such that the indigenes of a particular zone shall not constitute less than the lower limit or more than the upper limit of the range as set out in paragraph 12(b)
8. The six zones shall each consist of the 36 states and the FCT.
9. Depending on the number of states within each zone, the Commission shall adopt three ranges such that the indigenes of any state within a zone shall not constitute less than the lower limit or more than the upper limit of the range applicable to the zone as set out in paragraph 12(c).
Despite these, rather than implement these beautiful principles, what you get is a deliberate distortion and deviation and the nation’s development has been the worse for it.
The biggest casualty of the bad implementation of federal character is the educational sector, which is the bedrock of any nation, and the civil service, which is the engine house of any government. University admission has been so diluted to the point that candidates with as low as 120/400 and without requisite O/level 5 credits, English and Maths inclusive now populate the nation’s universities and other tertiary institutions. Now, the director general of the NYSC is lamenting that some youth corpers (Nigerian graduates) could not write their names and nobody is listening.
In the civil service also it is even worse. Civil service is built on the principles of bureaucracy and hierarchy. Quota system has been violating such principles by promoting people who are clearly unqualified to lord it over other staff who are years their senior. The result of this unwholesome practice is the killing of the service and resultant underdevelopment.
So, with Super Eagles unexpected victory, it is time to revisit the implementation of federal character/quota system in Nigeria. Merit must be worked back into it if the nation will survive and break through in technology, industrialization and quit the consumer club.
• Law Mefor, Author, Forensic Psychologist and Journalist, is National Coordinator, Transform Nigeria Movement (TNM); email: lawmefor@gmail.com; tel.: +234-803-787-2893
By: Law Mefor
So, the ‘Super Eagles of Biafra’ eventually won the AFCON championship? Many had accused the head coach, Stephen Okechukwu Keshi of taking only the ‘Igbo boys’ to the tournament. Keshi would have gone to the gallows for hatching such a team when he had over 250 ethnic groups to pick from. His family also hinted that Keshi may not really stay and the reason may not be far from such insistence on an unproductive quota system that has long sacrificed merit to under develop Nigeria.
The victory is such a welcome distraction and relief however temporal from the agony that Nigerians are going through in the face of brazen misgovernment.
Can Nigerians learn from the Super Eagles exploit that what the nation needs is not quota system (especially as it is implemented today) but our best hands even if they are to be found in a single family. Quota system may be good but it ought to set for itself an irreducible minimum standards and strictly enforce it, which if a state cannot meet, at the time, it misses it until it is better prepared. This could promote a healthy competition among the states as they prepare their citizens to qualify to fill federal posts. This does not happen as states can get the posts, qualified or not.
Quota system and federal character is an essential inclusive policy that is aimed at carrying every part of the polity along as a federal system. But like every good policy and programme in Nigeria, implementation has always been too bad. Federal character does not mean merit and standard should be sacrificed on the alter of mediocrity but that is what its implementation has become in Nigeria.
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. A source sadly observed that application of the principle in the federal civil service and the military has amounted to a confused balancing of the merit principle and the quota system, based essentially on states of origin. This has had adverse consequences for both institutions in terms of discipline, morale, and overall effectiveness and efficiency.
In exercise of the powers conferred on it by section 4 (1) (a) of the Federal Character Commission (Establishment, Etc.) Decree No. 34 1996, the Federal Character Commission prescribes some guiding principles and formulae specified for the distribution of all cadres of posts in all services throughout the federation.
Guiding principles and formulae are both noble and comprehensive:
1. Each state of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory shall be equitably represented in all national constitutions and in public enterprises and organizations.
2. The best and most competent persons are recruited from each state of the Federation to fill positions reserved for the indigenes of that state or the Federal Capital Territory.
3. Once a candidate has attained the necessary minimum requirement for appointment to a position, he shall qualify to fill a relevant vacancy reserved for indigenes of his state or the Federal Capital Territory.
4. Where the number of positions available cannot go round the states of the Federation or the Federal Capital Territory, the distribution shall be on zonal basis but in the case where two positions are available, the positions shall be shared between the northern zones and the southern zones.
5. Where the indigenes of a state or the Federal Capital Territory are not able to take up all the vacancies meant for them the indigenes of any state(s) or the Federal Capita Territory within the same zone shall be given preference in filling such vacancies. Provided that where the zone to which the preference is given fails to take up such vacancy the indigenes from any other zone shall be considered for the appointment.
6. Each states shall produce 2.75 per cent of the total work force in any Federal establishment while the Federal establishment while the Federal Capital Territory shall produce 1 percent for the indigenes of the Federal Capital Territory provided that the Commission may adopt a range so that the indigenes of any state of the Federation shall not constitute less than the lower limit or more than the upper limit of the range as set out in paragraph 12(a).
7. In the case of distribution on Zonal basis the Commission shall adopt another range such that the indigenes of a particular zone shall not constitute less than the lower limit or more than the upper limit of the range as set out in paragraph 12(b)
8. The six zones shall each consist of the 36 states and the FCT.
9. Depending on the number of states within each zone, the Commission shall adopt three ranges such that the indigenes of any state within a zone shall not constitute less than the lower limit or more than the upper limit of the range applicable to the zone as set out in paragraph 12(c).
Despite these, rather than implement these beautiful principles, what you get is a deliberate distortion and deviation and the nation’s development has been the worse for it.
The biggest casualty of the bad implementation of federal character is the educational sector, which is the bedrock of any nation, and the civil service, which is the engine house of any government. University admission has been so diluted to the point that candidates with as low as 120/400 and without requisite O/level 5 credits, English and Maths inclusive now populate the nation’s universities and other tertiary institutions. Now, the director general of the NYSC is lamenting that some youth corpers (Nigerian graduates) could not write their names and nobody is listening.
In the civil service also it is even worse. Civil service is built on the principles of bureaucracy and hierarchy. Quota system has been violating such principles by promoting people who are clearly unqualified to lord it over other staff who are years their senior. The result of this unwholesome practice is the killing of the service and resultant underdevelopment.
So, with Super Eagles unexpected victory, it is time to revisit the implementation of federal character/quota system in Nigeria. Merit must be worked back into it if the nation will survive and break through in technology, industrialization and quit the consumer club.
• Law Mefor, Author, Forensic Psychologist and Journalist, is National Coordinator, Transform Nigeria Movement (TNM); email: lawmefor@gmail.com; tel.: +234-803-787-2893
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