Barely six moxths into assumption of office of Dr Muheeba Farida Dankaka as the Executive Chairman, Federal Character Commission, FCC, pessimists, who would rather like the business-as-usual approach by the chairman against the new ways of doing things based on the targets given by the president to execute the mandate, wrote a lengthy petition against the person of the chairman based on issues relating to alleged certificate forgery and falsifications. When the issue was investigated and found to be untrue, it did not stop the scheming against her. I can say with all sense of responsibility that her leadership was applauded for recording great successes and achievements which were perceived to have unsettled many of her detractors.
Notable among her early achievements as of that time is the centralisation of the administrative structure of the monitoring and enforcement departments.This singular achievement of hers is a radical departure from the past approach which has made things difficult to achieve, to a systematic approach to the future.This innovation she brought to the commission was already giving the advocates of sentiment over merit some levels of justification and so their urge to go after her by all means.
The mischief against the chairman of the FCC did not start today as it has been building up since her appointmentt. For those who have been following its trend, it was a well planned mischief to initially put an integrity question on the head of the institution mandated to introduce reforms that would culminate realising the objective of the commission.To the surprise of many, the mischief makers have refused to stop their evil plot, even when their antics are now under the purview of the Nigerian public.This mischief, to many that have followed it since it started, has only one intendment and it is simply to stall the changes and reforms Dr. Dankaka is carrying out at the commission.
First, it was the LYGEL youths leadership initiatives that wrote a petition berating the senate from clearing her after alleging that her present names are not consistent with the ones presented in her certificates.They immediately demanded the sack of the chairman because of the ‘inconsistencies and irreconceivable differences’ in the certificates she presented.In her defence, which the group later found to be the truth both legally and when common sense was applied, she said her certificates bear her maiden names, hence the differences in her current names and the one in her cerficates.To put the record straigth, it is not unexpected that when a woman marries, she takes her husband,s name and this is no different with Muheeba Dankaka.
It is also found out by the general public that as against the allegation by LYGEL, that she got her masters degree in 1989 before she got married and this fact found to be true nipped this allegation in the bud. We should not be unmindful of the plot by some forces within and outside championing the well coordinated and richly funded campaign against the office and person of the FCC chairman Dr Muheeba Dankaka. We should also be aware of the antics of the youth and leadership initiatives LYGEL which is the well oiled group fronting for the traducers of the chairman.This is the group which moved to the next step of their campaign we saw carrying placards in their desire in truncate the reform mandate of the FCC chairman, an important agency of government which Mrs Dankaka is vigorously pursuin g. Let it be known to proponents of business-as-usual which is now an outlier now rather than the norm that Mr President is satisfied with the changing narratives at the commission, thanks to one woman – Dr. Muheeba Dankaka – that no selfish antics from within can detract her. We should be grateful that this woman has changed the narratives of the past of getting jobs by Nigerians only if the applicant knows anyone at the top or buys himself up to the job, as a condition for securing a job.
Her appointment signalled the intention of the Buhari administration to tackle corruption and job racketeering. She is gradually making Nigerians to come to terms with the new trend which underscores the direction of Nigeria as a nation where mediocrity will no longer find space, where patriotic and incorruptible citizens will be harnessed to re-work a country that has been corrupted by insensitive and uncaring successive governments. She is concentrating with this arduous and herculean tasks of reforming one of the most important agencies of government. We must all rally support for her rather than be part of the saboteurs. Nigeria is getting better and together we shall overcome.Musa Wada, Abuja
