The Centre for Social Justice, Equity and Transparency (CESJET) has commended the appointment of Professor Charles Uwakwe as the new Executive Secretary of the National Examination Council (NECO), saying the appointment is well deserved.

CESJET Executive Secretary, Comrade Ikpa Isaac in a statement said it most irresponsible that some group of persons are protesting and asking for the appointment to be reversed for ethnic considerations because the new Executive Secretary is from the south and that no northerner has ever occupied the position.

He said, “it is even more depressing when the Citizens Advocacy for Equity and Educational Development further explained that the Executive Secretary should have come from the north because the council’s headquarters is located in the north. If the head of every government agency has to be appointed on the basis of geo-location, then the north would be left massively disadvantaged as many of the government establishments headed by northerners are not located in their geographical areas.

“The demand of the protesters is dangerous coming at a time when there is outcry in some quarters that the appointments under the current government tilted in favour of the north; acceding to the protesters’ demand would therefore only worsen the sense of discrimination that is already growing in some geo-political zones and cannot be in the interest of Nigeria.”

He said NECO is one of the agencies where ethnicity should not play any role in the appointment of chief executives owing to its sensitive nature as an educational agency that must be driven by competence and excellence at all times.

He said the practice must therefore remain scouting for the best brain the country can find to man such a sensitive position.

He said, “We at the Centre for Social Justice, Equity and Transparency wish to laud the Hon Minister of Education for in ghe first place finding a man with the necessary qualities to pilot the affairs of our nation’s only senior certification agency at this point in time.”

According to Isaac, Professor Charles Uwakwe, irrespective of his ethnicity, meets these rigorous requirements over and above, saying he must therefore be allowed to settle down to the task of bringing his skills to bear in the running of the affairs of NECO, which must be brought to a level where the certificates issued would be acceptable all over the world.

He urged Uwakwe to see the protestation as testament to the awe his credential instills in those that do not want to see NECO grow, and should make him put in extra efforts at excelling in the new assignment.