The senate has started investigating ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) for allegedly breaking the federal character rules.

The move follows a motion sponsored by Osita Ngwu, the senator representing Enugu west on Tuesday.

The motion was titled “urgent need to address systemic abuse and ineffective implementation of the federal character principle in Nigeria’s public sector”.

“The federal character principle, entrenched in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), mandates fair representation in federal appointments to reflect the linguistic, ethnic, religious, and geographic diversity of the nation,” Ngwu said.

“Section 14(3) and (4) of the constitution unequivocally stipulate that ‘no predominance of persons from a few states or from a few ethnic or sectional groups’ should exist within the federal government or its agencies.”

The lawmaker said some MDAs have allegedly failed to comply with the federal character principle.

He listed the defaulting agencies to include the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and its subsidiary, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC); the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC); the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA); PENCOM; NDIC; the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA); the National Library of Nigeria (NLN); the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN); the Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN); the Solid Minerals Development Fund (SMDF); and the Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NNRA).

He said the senate, “regrets that against the spirit of order 96(27)(b) of the senate standing orders 2023 (as amended) and sections 62, 88, 89, 14(3)-(4) and the third schedule part I C8(1) of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) which bestows on its committee on federal character and inter-governmental affairs the power of legislative oversight in matters connected to the implementation and monitoring of the policy, it is deemed that various federal institutions, including NNPCL and its subsidiary, NUPRC, NAFDAC, NPA, PENCOM, NDIC, FUTA, NLN, SMEDAN, ECN, SMDF, NNRA have consistently failed to adhere to federal character mandates, often bypassing regulations in their recruitment exercise (evidence abound).”

He alleged that the agencies “have consistently failed to adhere to federal character mandates, often bypassing regulations in their recruitment exercises”.

Supporting the motion, Seriake Dickson, the senator representing Bayelsa west, called on President Bola Tinubu to back the senate’s efforts to fix recruitment imbalances in federal agencies.

“He is the leader and chief executive of the country; he should be told that this flagrant and widespread violation must stop,” Dickson, a former governor of Bayelsa state, said.

“The national assembly is taking action, and he should throw his weight behind it. When the report is ready, he should be given a copy so that we can ensure fairness for all.”

Victor Umeh, the Anambra central senator, criticised the “intentional exclusion of certain regions, especially in federal appointments and infrastructure projects”.

“No part of Nigeria should be treated as an afterthought,” Umeh said.

The senate ordered its committee on federal character and intergovernmental affairs to investigate and report back within four weeks with the representatives of the Nigerian Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA).

The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Tuesday set aside actions previously delivered against the reinstatement of Muhammadu Sanusi II as the 16th Emir of Kano.

Subsequently, the appellate court, upon acknowledging the transmission of the case record to the Supreme Court, directed all interested parties to exercise caution, pending the hearing of their appeals at the apex court.

In a unanimous ruling delivered by a three-member panel of justices, presided over by Justice Biobele Abraham Georgewill, the court accepted the withdrawal of the application filed by the Kano State Government, following the transmission of the record of appeal to the Supreme Court.

During the resumed hearing on the enforcement of its earlier orders, counsel for the Kano State Government, Ibrahim Wangida, informed the court of a notice of appeal filed against the stay of execution issued on Friday, March 14, 2025.

Wangida stated that all necessary legal steps had been taken, including the transmission of the appeal record to the Supreme Court.

By implication, the transmission of the appeal record to the Supreme Court, in line with established legal precedents, operates as a stay of any further action on the Court of Appeal’s ruling of March 14, 2025.

Justice Abang, on Friday, March 14, 2025, ordered a stay of execution on an earlier judgment that validated the reinstatement of Sanusi II as the 16th Emir of Kano.

The judge also directed all parties to maintain the status quo ante bellum, as well as the sheriffs of both the Court of Appeal and the trial court, reverting to the situation before the trial court’s ruling delivered on June 13, 2024, in Suit No. FHC/KN/CS/182/2024.

Dissatisfied with Justice Abang’s ruling, counsel for the Kano State Government, Wangida, argued that the March 14 ruling constituted a grave error in interpreting constitutional provisions.

He maintained that an appeal had already been filed before the Supreme Court.

Responding to the notice of appeal, counsel for the appellant, Abdul Fagge (SAN), did not object, stating that the respondent acted within constitutional provisions.

The Kano State Government reinstated Sanusi II as the 16th Emir of Kano, following the passage of the Kano State Emirate Council (Repeal) Law 2024.

The same law deposed Aminu Ado Bayero as the 15th Emir, along with four first-class emirs appointed by former Governor Abdullahi Ganduje.

Bayero, however, returned and took up residence at the Nassarawa mini palace in Kano under heavy security protection, while legally challenging his removal by the state government.

George Akume, secretary to the government of the federation (SGF), says President Bola Tinubu is committed to addressing challenges in policy execution across government institutions.

Akume spoke on Tuesday at a stakeholders’ validation session on the ‘Draft National Policy Development and Management Framework’, in Abuja.

The event was organised by Hadiza Bala Usman, special adviser to the president on policy and coordination.

The SGF noted that the current administration recognises that effective governance depends on structured and well-implemented policies.

Akume said the lack of coordination among ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) has been a major hindrance to Nigeria’s policy management and national development.

“Over the years, one of the recurring challenges of policy management in Nigeria has been the lack of coherence and consistency across ministries, departments, and agencies,” he said.

“Fragmentation, duplication, and sublimation have often resulted in inefficiencies, slowing down the implementation of critical interventions that should otherwise accelerate national progress.”

The SGF described the Draft National Policy Development and Management Framework as a crucial step toward ensuring policies are not only well-formulated but also effectively implemented, monitored, and adapted to evolving national needs.

“This Draft National Policy Development and Management Framework is a bold step towards addressing these challenges,” he said.

“It offers a systematic approach to policy formulation, implementation, and evaluation- -one that is informed by international best practices, yet deeply rooted in the Nigerian context.

“Indeed, policymaking is not a theoretical exercise; it is a practical tool for governance, the mechanism through which governments translate national aspirations into concrete actions.

“A robust policy framework must not only define priorities but also provide planning and implementation pathways, assign institutional responsibilities, and establish mechanisms for tracking impacts.

“This is what distinguishes a well-governed nation from one where policies exist only in name.

”That is why today’s session is crucial — it is an opportunity to define this framework into an instrument that will endure, ensuring that public policy is driven by data, aligned with national goals, and responsive to the dynamic needs of our people.”

Tayo Aduloju, chief executive officer of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), also spoke at the event, highlighting Nigeria’s history of well-designed but poorly executed policies.

“Seven out of ten policies created between 1990 and today, by our own rough estimation and the NDSG, failed to achieve 100 per cent of their impact,” he said.

“In 90 per cent of the cases, it’s not really bad policy; the problem is bad policy execution.”

Other key stakeholders at the session included Ayo Omotayo, director-general of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS); Richard Montgomery, the British High Commissioner, represented by William Robinson; and representatives of Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Tajudeen Abbas.

One of Britain’s most innovative and adventurous publishers Peepal Tree Press based in Leeds, has announced its purchase of the right to re-publish Jamaican-Nigerian author Lindsay Barrett’s ground-breaking novel, Song for Mumu, which was first published in 1967.

According to the company’s managers the title was always on the list of novels it wanted to republish, and they are delighted to have at last managed to contact the author in Nigeria to agree to a new edition. Peepal Tree’s managing editor, Jeremy Poynting says that he, “has long admired Song for Mumu as a work of intense poetic imagination which finds new ways of exploring fundamental aspects of Caribbean reality: its histories of pain and suffering, the breach from Africa, the tensions between city and country and ways of subverting the dominance of the plantation and Eurocentric culture.

In the Caribbean Modern Classics series, it joins the work of Wilson Harris and Denis Williams in breaking out from what Harris called the ‘novel of manners’ a dominant trend of conventional realism in the Caribbean novel” Peepal Tree Press is currently celebrating its 40th anniversary since its founding in 1985. Since that time, it has published almost 500 titles. Its focus is on what George Lamming called the Caribbean nation, wherever it is in the world, though it is also concerned with Black British writing which draws on different heritages. Its output is roughly balanced between fiction, poetry and non-fiction, including creative genres such as memoirs and academic titles in the humanities focused on publishing the work of new writers and sustaining subsequent writing careers but also on recuperating important books from the past. In 2009, Peepal Tree launched its Caribbean Modern Classics series, now with over fifty titles.

Several of its authors have won major international awards.