North Central People’s Forum, NCPF, has called for a correction in the appointment of the North Central Development Commission, NCDC, board to ensure fairness and equity among its constituent states.
The forum said that the composition of the NCDC’s board and Executive Management, as it is currently, does not reflect the principles of inclusion, balance, and fairness across all states in the zone.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had 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.
The forum, in a statement by its Secretary General, Khaleel Bolaji, said 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 that it is politically imperative that leadership and strategic positions within the Commission be equitably distributed between these blocs.
“At present, both the Chairman and Managing Director—as well as the Commission’s headquarters—are concentrated in the Upper North Central bloc,” the forum 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 urging the President 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.
“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 acknowledged 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.”
