Federal Character Principle and the elusive idea of Unity in Contemporary Nigeria: Aspects of Law, Politics and Policy

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume III, Issue III, March 2019 | ISSN 2454–6186

Federal Character Principle and the elusive idea of Unity in Contemporary Nigeria: Aspects of Law, Politics and Policy

Adesanya Tolulope & Tenibiaje Mobobola

Lead City University, Ibadan, Nigeria

Nigeria is made up of at least 250 ethnic groups, forcibly merged together by the British government. Shortly after amalgamation and boundary adjustments in 1914, three major ethnic groups emerged while several ethnic groups were classified as minor groups. This unprecedented event made for the domination of a group over others.
This political and administrative anomaly created room for minority oppression and inequality and it became so glaring with its resultant manifestation, leading to a civil war. The aftermaths of the war led to struggles of uniting the country and reconcile the historical differences; the Nigerian government introduced a number of programs or policies such as State Creation, National Youth Service Scheme, Unity Schools and the Federal Character Principle .
The principle is to ensure that quotas are reserved for all ethnic groups. The principle was believed by many to be the best solution to correcting past political defects; thereby creating a formula for (re)distributing socio-economic services . The central idea is that it ensures all ethnic groups are represented and that there is no further domination of a group over others . It is also meant to help forestall ethnic conflicts resulting from unhealthy competitions by virtue of governmental appointments and employment into the public service etc.
This initiative is understandably not totally new as it varies from country to country depending on their peculiarities. In order to ensure fairness, equality and freedom from discrimination, some countries for example enacted laws bothering on employment equity with a view of ensuring equality at the workplace. In the case of Nigeria for instance, section 42 of the 1999 constitution generally provides against discrimination. Furthermore, Section 14 expressly provides that the composition of the government of the federation or any of its agencies shall not be dominated by people from a particular region. Subsection 4 also provides that the Federal Character Principle should be observed both at the state and local government level.

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