BILL TO ENSURE PRESIDENCY REVERTS TO FCC IN APPOINTING SERVICE CHIEFS COMING – SENATE

A bill seeking to establish the Armed Forces Service Commission and strict adherence of the President to the Federal Character Commission principles in the appointment of service chiefs have on Tuesday passed for second reading.

The law if passed eventually into law by both chambers and assented to by the President would make it possible for aggrieved Nigerians to sue the Commission if they felt that the FCC principles were ignored in the appointment of service chiefs.

The sponsor of the Armed Forces Service Commission (establishment) Bill, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe in his argument said the bill, pursuant to Section 219 of the 1999 constitution as amended, conferred some powers on the National Assembly.

He also noted that “The Federal Character Commission as one of the Federal Executive Bodies established under section 153 (1) of the 1999 Constitution also have the constitutional mandate in Paragraph 8, Part 1 of the 3rd schedule to the Constitution.

Nigerian National Assembly
Kabusa16 [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

“Part of the mandate is to ensure compliance with the Federal Character principle provided for in section 14 (3) and (4) of the 1999 Constitution.

“It shall work out an equitable formula subject to the approval of the National Assembly for the distribution of all cadres of posts in the public service of the Federation, and of the states.”

Roland Dosumu

Written by BoomRadioNG