The senator representing Abia South Senatorial District, Enyinnaya Abaribe, has said Nigeria cannot achieve any significant economic growth and development with the current policy of appointing persons based on their ethnic identities rather than merit.
Abaribe, speaking at the 41st Annual Olumide Memorial Lecture organised by the Nigerian Institution of Surveyors in Abuja, with the theme, ‘Why not Merit?’, lamented that certain public officeholders had persistently implemented the federal character principle to suit their selfish ambitions through disproportionate assessment modules that discounted merit.
The senator said, “It is baffling that the beautiful concept of federal character seems to have been corrupted in our country by some kind of convoluted reasoning, at least given its couching in our statutes and even its practice expectations.
“As it stands now, the federal character principle comes out in practice to give incompetence an audacious ride against merit using geo-tribal watermarks and glass ceilings. If the federal character initiative intends to carry every polity along, it should not be corrupted by disproportionate assessment modules that discount merit.
“It should rather be that when equities are equal and opportunities fixed, all sections of the country should get relatively equal chances in the fixed opportunity. That way the people who are not qualified don’t get placements in the fixed opportunities merely because they come from somewhere and for that matter displace people with merit.”
Earlier, the NIS President, Mathew Ibitoye, said the concept of godfatherism, rather than merit and qualification, was prevalent in the country.
