Robert Egbe
The Commissioner representing Lagos State at the Federal Character Commission, (FCC) Abdulwasiu Kayode Bawa-Allah, has pledged to work with stakeholders in Lagos to correct federal character imbalance.
The Commissioner said it was unhealthy that indigenes of Lagos made up only about 11 per cent of the 10,000 employees on Grade Levels 1 to 6 working across over 120 federal organisations operating in the state.
According to him Lagos’ representation in the federal system was below the statutory 2.5 per cent.
Speaking during a meeting with reporters at the FCC’s Lagos office, Bawa-Allah recalled that he made a similar observation last Wednesday during a meeting with Governor Babjide Sanwo-Olu.
He said: “There is a federal circular to institutions and it is the law that institutions that are located in a locality must embrace 74 per cent, employ 75 per cent of the indigenes or people within the catchment area of that institution.
“The percentage of Lagosians in these institutions is not even up to 10 per cent, and it reflects in the overall number of 122 or so of those institutions that have submitted their nominal role; on aggregate Lagosians are only 11.87 per cent and others are 89 per cent, which was what His Excellency (Sanwo-Olu) also highlighted when he gave his press remark during my visit.”
He noted that the first mandate that the FCC is known for is employment balance.
Bawa-Allah said: “This employment balance engenders peace, harmony and patriotism. When we move away from this, we have issues. These issues lead to unrest, agitations etc.
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“As a matter of fact, I believe 30 or 40 per cent of the call for breakout, separation, reform and all of that is because federal character principles are not properly enforced and utilised or implemented.”
President Muhammadu Buhari, he explained, was working hard to solve the problem.
“The President himself wants this problem to go away, he wants unity, he wants connection of Nigerians to his government and this can only happen when they do what is right by Nigerians,” he added.
One of the FCC’s strategies to combat the issue, he explained, was the visit to federal institutions in Lagos.
Bawa-Allah said: “In furtherance of that work, we proceeded to visit and interact with institutions that we felt are culpable and the numbers are not favourable to Lagosians. We have since visited Igbobi National Orthopaedic Hospital; we have also visited Yaba College of Technology.
“Some of these other institutions located here, such as Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Federal Medical Centre and a host of others that our data has shown that the numbers are not where they should be.
“In the future, we hope to visit and interact with the heads and leaders of these institutions to ensure that the imbalance is addressed. I want to call on Lagosians to be patient and to work with us; myself and my staff. Give us information that will help us and that will help Lagosians.”
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