The North Central People’s Forum (NCPF) has called for a correction of the perceived “imbalance” in the North Central Development Commission (NCDC) board composition.
The forum recommended restructuring the board to ensure fairness and equity, noting that commission’s headquarters, the Chairman and Managing Director of board currently hail from the same Benue-Plateau bloc.
The Forum made the call in a statement by its Secretary General, Khaleel Bolaji, yesterday.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu last week forwarded to the Senate the list of 19 nominees for the newly established North Central, South West, and South South Development Commissions, seeking their statutory screening and confirmation.
According to the group, the North Central region comprises two broad discernible blocs: the Upper North Central, which comprises Benue, Plateau, and Nasarawa states (historically, the old Benue-Plateau region), and the Lower North Central, comprising Niger, Kogi, Kwara states, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
It said: “This concentration of leadership and institutional power in one axis obviously undermines the delicate ethno-political balance that has sustained harmony in the North Central region.
“Even more troubling is the apparent exclusion of the FCT, as the individual purportedly representing the FCT is reportedly from Benue State.”
While respectfully urging President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to intervene and ensure a more equitable representation in the leadership structure of the NCDC, the forum recommended that: “since the Act establishing the Commission mandates the Chairmanship to rotate alphabetically beginning with Benue State, the Managing Director position should be allocated to a state within the Lower North Central bloc (i.e., Niger, Kogi, Kwara, or the FCT).”
It also recommends: “That as a general standing rule therefore, both the Managing Director and Chairmanship position should not come from the same bloc at any given time in order to achieve the desired balance and equity.
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“That the number of Executive Directors be increased to seven (7), including the Managing Director, with each state and the FCT nominating one Executive Director.
“That each member state, excluding the state providing the Chairman, should have a Non-Executive Director, ensuring that every state and the FCT is meaningfully represented at both executive and non-executive levels.”
The group acknowledge the Senate for initiating legislative amendments to the Act to expand the Commission’s executive structure, “and urge that our observations be adequately captured in the amendments.”