President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has allegedly breached some of the provisions of the Act establishing the North West Development Commission in the appointment of its governing board.

Daily Trust reports that the bill for the establishment of the commission was passed by the Senate and assented to by President Tinubu on July 24, 2014.

It was sponsored by the Deputy President of the Senate, Barau I. Jibrin (APC, Kano North).

Barau said that the commission would accelerate development in the North West region ravaged by the activities of bandits and terrorists.

Sequel to the passage of the bill, Tinubu in line with the provisions of the law, went ahead to appoint a governing board for the commission.

The appointees with their portfolios are: Chairman, Haruna Ginsau (Jigawa); MD/CEO, Abdullahi Shehu Ma’aji (Kano);  Yahaya Umar Namahe (Sokoto); Aminu Suleiman (Kebbi); Tijani Yahaya Kaura (Zamfara);  Abdulkadir S. Usman (Kaduna); Muhammad Ali Wudil (Kano); Shamsu Sule (Katsina) and Nasidi Ali (Jigawa).

However, concerns have been raised on the apparent contravention of the Act establishing the commission in the appointments into the Board.

One of our reporters who obtained a copy of the Act yesterday also observed that the president did not adhere to some provisions of the Act that established the NWDC, as pointed out by some stakeholders from the North West zone.

Who should be the MD?

Part 11 of the NWDC Act states that: “There shall be for the commission a management committee which shall consist of-

(a) a managing director; and Structure of the commission; (b) the directors responsible for the departments established under Section 9 of this Act and such number of other members as may be determined by the Board.

Subsection 12(1)  states that the managing director position  shall rotate amongst member states in alphabetical order, and the managing director shall- (a)  be an indigene of any of the North-West states; (b) have such qualification and experience as are appropriate for a person required to perform the functions of the offices under this Act; among others qualifications.

However, Daily Trust observed an infraction in the appointment of the managing director of the commission.

Considering that the Act provides that the position should rotate in alphabetical order, the position was supposed to be filled first by someone from Jigawa State.

Sequel to this, the appointment of Professor Abdullahi Shehu Ma’aji from Kano State as MD contravened the provisions of the Act.

Omission of security representatives

In Part 1, Section 2 of the Act establishing the commission, the law states that the Board shall consist of­ (a) Chairman; (b) one person each, who shall be an indigene, to represent the states listed below- (i) Jigawa, (ii) Kaduna, (iii) Kano, (iv) Katsina, (v) Kebbi, (vi) Sokoto, and (vii) Zamfara.

It also stipulates for three persons to represent the following security organisations – (i) the Army, who shall not be below the rank of a Colonel, (ii) the Police, who shall not be below the rank of Superintendent of Police, and (iii) the Civil Defence Corps who shall not be below the rank of Deputy Commandant; (d) one representative of solid minerals extracting and mining producing companies  in the North-West states, nominated by those companies; (e) one person, not below the rank of a Director to represent the – (i) Federal Ministry of Finance, (ii) Federal Ministry of Education, (iii) Federal Ministry of Environment; and (f) the Managing Director of the Commission.

However, in the announcement of appointments released by the presidency, Tinubu omitted names of representatives of the security agencies and other sectors, contrary to the provisions of the Act establishing the NWDC.

NASS has final say – Onanuga

Reacting to the observations, Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy told Daily Trust that the National Assembly has the final say on the nominations made by President Bola Tinubu.

According to the Presidential spokesman, what the president has done was to make those nominations, and that when the Senate now seats to do its work, the lawmakers can point out those observations.

He said: “It is left for the National Assembly to decide based on the Act that they have passed.

“The president does not have the final say; that is why he has only nominated the representatives,” he said.