Johnchuks Onuanyim 
A one-time presidential aide, Okoi Obono-Obla, yesterday criticised the recent appointment to the university, polytechnic and Colleges of Education governing council boards, saying it was lopsided.
According to him, the appointments do not reflect national character, making the Federal Character Commission (FCC) outlive its usefulness.
He claimed that some top Assange wins right to challenge US extradition Wikileaks founder Julian Assange can bring a new appeal against extradition to the US, the High Court has ruled. He was granted permission to appeal against the order that he be sent to the US to stand trial for leaking military secrets.
The decision means Assange will be able to challenge US assurances over how his prospective trial would be conducted and whether his right to free speech would be infringed. The 52-year-old’s lawyers hugged each other in court after the latest ruling in the legal saga.
They have argued that the case against him – relating to the release of highly classified documents almost 15 years ago about alleged US war crimes – is politically motivated. government officials influenced the appointments in favour of their cronies. Okoi Obono-Obla said: “What kind of behaviour, nepotism and parochialism is that?”
The former Special Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property (SPIP) Chairman slammed the FCC for not playing its role.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) chief added: “We are seeing all these imbalances in federal appointments because the FCC is supposed to be the constitutional regulator of scrutinising such appointments and employments to see whether or not they conform with the federal character principle and is performing optimally low.
“The Commission is docile, inactive and compromised. It should be replaced with the Equal Opportunity Commission. “There is too much injustice in Nigeria and it is causing the pulling of the country by centripetal and centrifugal forces. “Nigeria leaders are selfish and parochial.
“You can imagine some states who have people in the corridors of power having more than 30 appointees while some other marginalised states have only 2,4,5,6 and so on.
“How do we build a nation when leaders behave in such an irresponsible and parochial manner? 555 appointments were available. “We have 36 states and Abuja so each could conveniently be allotted 10 slots each. “The remaining can then be shared to the six geopolitical zones.”
