The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, has said advocates of federal character principle are only using it to the detriment of national development by giving undeserved patronage to their cronies.
He therefore called for a drastic reform of the process in public sector recruitments for the country to move forward.
In a new book due for public presentation this month, Ekweremadu said fears of marginalisation had suppressed merit in recruitments into the public service.
In the book titled “Who will Love my Country: Ideas of Building the Nigeria of our Dreams”, the deputy Senate president said qualified Nigerians could be found in every part of the country.
“The reality is that federal character, like any human enterprise, has been abused and exploited and is in dire need of reform. Regrettably, federal character has become a euphemism for recruiting unqualified people into the public service.
“Those who engage in this conduct wittingly or unwittingly increase the polarisation of Nigeria along ethnic lines by redefining federal character to include hiring unqualified and clearly unsuitable people just because of their ethnic origin.”
Speaking further on why the concept should be redefined, Ekweremadu said: “Some people fear that employment standards have been recalibrated to accommodate the employment of people whose chief qualification seems to be that they come from a particular geographical zone.
“These employees decrease productivity, weaken our public service, and ultimately render it inefficient. Employment should, as far as practicable, be based on merit and not distorted by patronage, nepotism, or tribalism.”
While noting that federal character has played an important role in fostering national unity and promoting cross cultural interactions, Ekweremadu maintained that it had been abused and exploited.
