Northern Leaders Give Buhari Ultimatum to Replace NECO New Registrar, Obioma with a Northern Person

TRACKING___The Nigerian Chapter of the National Youth Council of Nigeria, NYCN, has requested President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently dismiss the newly appointed Registrar of the National Examination Council, NECO, Professor Godswill Obioma.

The Council urged Buhari to withdraw Obioma’s appointment and replace him with a candidate from the host community (Niger State) or northern Nigeria.

In Minna, the President of National Youth Council of Nigeria, Comrade Bello B. Shariff, in the 21 years of NECO’s existence, said that the host State had taken a back seat in appointing the head of the examination body.

Sitting in a press conference with other officials of the organization, Shariff stated: “The struggle and agitation will continue until justice and fairness are expressed in NECO’s activities.

He also complained that the host State had been underrepresented in the area of employment, arguing that “less than 10% of Levels 1-6, which are made up of junior staff normally assigned to host communities, were rejected”.

” Even former leaders recruited people from their state for appointments, leaving host communities unsupervised, even with inferior cadres.

With regard to procurement in the Council, the President noted that since NECO was founded in 1999 by the former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, no local content has been taken into account in the awarding of contracts, and criticized the Council for not being transparent and fair in its social responsibility to the State.

The President also revealed that the State Chapter was holding discussions with the national body, especially with the northern states, to identify the reasons for its agitation.

However, when NECO contacted them, NECO said through Public Relations Officer, Azeez Sani, that the organization was aware of the demands of NYCN in the State over the appointment of the new NECO Registrar.

He added that the review panel would soon issue a statement on the matter and said, “For the time being, that is all we can say on the subject.