Northern youths condemn new appointment at PENCOM

Following the recent change of leadership as announced by President Muhammadu Buhari appointing the new management of Pencom led by our son Alhaji Dikko Aliyu Adbdulrahman as Director General, which was greeted by wild jubilations across the country as putting a square peg in a round hole.

By appointing an accomplished professional with several years of experience, that will bring his professional competence to bear on the nation’s pension industry and the subsequent change by the Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osibanjo on the eve of the Democracy Day Celebrations on the 27th May, 2017, to re-appoint Dikko Abdulrahman as Chairman,Bank of Industry (BOI) and Mr. Funsho Doherty as the Director General of PENCOM respectively.

The Arewa Youth Renaissance (AYR), an umbrella body of Northern youths in Nigeria and Diaspora has castigated the appointment that it contravenes the Pension Reform Act, PRA 2014, while Section 21(2) of PRA 2014 provides that “In the event of a vacancy, the President shall appoint a replacement from the geo-political zone of the immediate past member that vacated office” the Acting President cannot appoint a person from the South-West to replace Aliyu Dikko from the North-West.

We therefore, reject the appointment in its entirety by the Acting President and condemned what it called a marginalization of the North by the Acting President knowing fully well that Mr. President is on medical leave.

He took the bold step to remove a son of the North by replacing him with a South-West in his first official appointment as Acting President.

This bold assertion of authority and appointment has shown the North what is to come in the days ahead and has also shown the disdain the Acting President has for the North in his first official outing.

In a terse press release signed by Comrade Ibn Yakassai, Secretary of AYR, he castigated the Acting President on the sudden change and removal of Aliyu Dikko Abdulrahman with the replacement of Funsho Doherty from the South-West saying that it does not follow due process and opined that what is good for the goose is also good for the gander.

Stating that Dikko is well qualified and well experienced than Funsho Doherty and wondered what must have made the Acting President to change a winning team to suit his geo-political region by undermining President Muhammadu Buhari’s appointment in moving the nation forward.

That the removal of Dikko before his confirmation by the Senate abruptly ended the wild celebration and jubilation across the North which is tantamount to a travesty of Justice on the region and call for an all-inclusive progressives and the Northern elders to rise up to the occasion.

The Secretary emphasized that on behalf of the teeming northern youths of Nigeria and the Diaspora, condemns the unprofessional removal of Dikko Abdulrahman as biased and capable of undermining the good relationship that have existed between the North and South-West and called on the Acting President to reverse this ugly trend that does not portend well for our democracy and for the diverse geo-political region’s growth and integration.

Emphasizing that this singular act of the Acting President is capable of sending a wrong signal to other geo-political regions that are not represented on the board irrespective of the Act defining the roles of the geo-political regions’ representation on the executive management.

He called on all the Northern elders, stakeholders and elites to be forewarned and states categorically, that the acting President should reverse to the statusquo or risk losing the support of the North in the discharge of his duties.

As his body language has shown his dislike for the region that has contributed enormously to the growth, peace and stability of the country.

Nothing that the changes therein is un-Islamic and has no bases whatsoever and echoing that the north have celebrated joyously the appointment of their son on the mass media only to be rejected few days to the senate confirmation not minding the emotional torture, trauma and suffering, it has caused the region to train Alhaji Dikko.

We therefore, reject the appointment of Alhaji Aliyu Dikko Abdulrahman as Chairman, Bank of Industry (BOI) and aligned ourselves with the early appointment by President Muhammadu Buhari as the Director General of the National Pension Commission (PENCOM).

That if the PRA 2014 could be brazenly trampled upon to remove and impose leadership on PENCOM, who says the provisions governing and protecting the funds’ assets cannot be discarded, to be forewarned is to be forearmed.”