New Telegraph

Rights group writes NASS, over composition of Service Chiefs

 

Our Reporter

A group, the Conference Of Nigeria Civil Rights Defenders (CNCRD), has appealed to the National Assembly to demand a review of last month’s appointment of Service Chiefs by President Muhammadu Buhari.
In an open letter to the parliament, the group faulted the composition of the Service Chiefs, which excluded the South East zone.
Specifically, the group sought the immediate review of the appointment, in a bid to reflect the federal character principle, which favours proportional representation in appointments into public offices.
It was the group’s contention that the exclusion of the Igbos – the third largest ethnic group in the country from the security management team for the second time during this administration – leaves much to be desired, hence the need for the alleged wrongs to be corrected before screening by the lawmakers.
In the letter entitled: “Open Letter to the National Assembly on the Screening of the New Service Chiefs”, and dated Monday, February 15, the group expressed their total support for the position of Igbo apex socio-cultural organisation, Ohaneze Ndigbo, for a review of the Service Chiefs’ composition, saying its position was for equity and fairness.
This was as the group called on the National Assembly “as the representative of the people to prevail on Mr President to correct this gross injustice by reviewing the appointments in the interest of justice and national unity”.
The letter read in part: “We are a coalition of civil society organisations whose thematic area of intervention is mainly on national unity, peace building and  protection of human rights. This is what we have been doing for several years  of our existence.
“We write to throw our weight behind the Igbo apex socio cultural group,Ohanaeze Ndigbo, on the exclusion of Igbo from South East in the composition of the new Service Chiefs which to us, is  a gross violation of the federal character principles and a clear bias against the Igbos.
“We call on the National Assembly  as the representative of the people to prevail on Mr President to correct this gross injustice by reviewing the appointments in the interest of justice and national unity.”
The group said while it believed that besides competence, the president reserved the right to appoint military officers of his choice into the security management team, leaving out officers of Igbo origin in two straight appointments into the position was a clear case of bias against the Igbo nation.
“While it is true that competency should be the criteria for appointment of this nature and not ethnic considerations, we must say that only when there is justice and equity that genuine peace and reconciliation can be achieved,” it noted.
According to the group: “Igbo is the third largest tribe with qualified,competent, and tested officers in all the branches of the Armed Force of Nigeria.
“We wonder why the Presidency did not  look inward and pick one of them in two consecutive times that he made service chiefs’ appointments! What is really the sin of the Igbos? Or are other tribes more Nigeria than others?”

Read Previous

How Moses Simon Has Taken His Game to the Next Level at FC Nantes

Read Next

You are my father, I am not your father

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *